First Steps
by Fate Vione
Summary: Sequel to little feet. Better understood if first story is read first.Tsuzuki and Hisoka try to start a new family with their baby Keitaro. What awaits them down the normal path to parenthood? What even eviler things await them. chapt 13
1. Chapter 1

The crowd had finally come and gone. Tsuzuki couldn't be happier. Every last member of the ministry had come to visit him once Hisoka was stitched and the baby was wrapped. First came the squealing, jumping Wakaba, dragging in her bastard of a partner. It was only Hisoka's weakness that had kept the man from glaring Terazuma down and attacking him. That and he didn't want to hurt 'mother' or baby. Then came in chief Konoe making all sorts of faces at the baby, most of the time making it cry with his very presence. He gave both shinigami a long while off from work. Then came in Tatsumi bearing fruit basket and bill for supplies and such in hand. Tsuzuki was happiest to see him of all people leave. He couldn't work for another 300 years free!

Tsuzuki sat in the chair placed next to Hisoka's bed. He loved to watch the boy sleep, he was so tired from the drugs he had just fallen right asleep after the surgery, Keitaro still held protectively in his arms. He was so cute there, with the baby in his arms, fussing ever so slightly as he too drifted to sleep. Now the baby sat in the bed made for him while he was going to be staying here, fussing and making those cute little noises that babies do when they have nothing better to do. Tsuzuki just figured the baby was happy to be out and able to move more freely, he never really seemed to keep his arms and legs in, always stretching and jerking around, like he was trying to get used to having them.

Tsuzuki leaned over, picking up his new son carefully, remembering the way Watari had flipped on them both, making sure they both knew how to hold a new born, like they hadn't known. He smiled at the sound of the tiny little diaper Watari had put on him, it made a crinkly little noise as he rested the boys tiny body on his left arm. Head supported, body cradled. He checked off in his mind the things Watari had beat in. He ran his fingers of his right hand gently over the babies cheek, loving the way the baby squirmed at his touch, making the cutest little noise.

"I've broken so many promises Keitaro. I've made promises to so many people before, that I'd protect them. I failed many times, and I've always beat on myself for them being hurt, but this time is different. I love you much, much more than my own life, Hisoka too... you.. mother I suppose. I'll die a million more deaths than to let harm be done to either of you." Tsuzuki watched the baby gurgle and whined. He never seemed to cry when he held him, he wouldn't stop when Watari held him. Tsuzuki wondered if the infant knew that it was Watari's fault for all this...

"I won't let Muraki touch you..." Tsuzuki stroked the baby's head softly, being ware of the soft spot as he leaned forward to kiss him. He tucked the blanket more securely around him, not wanting the baby to catch cold for an instant. Laying the child in his hospital bed laying at the foot of Hisoka's bed, he tucked the child even more securely before standing. He began to head out of the room when He heard the bed shift as Hisoka moved his weight to better see the older man.

"Where are you going...?" Hisoka asked tiredly. Tsuzuki could see the sleep in his eyes and the yawn in his voice.

"I've got a few things to do is all. I'll be back soon." He smiled but when he opened his eyes he could see the unhappy, weariness in Hisoka's eyes. He didn't want to be left alone, he hadn't liked being left alone since they'd rescued him from Muraki. He was constantly scared that the mad man would come back for him to dissect the infant from him, and now, baby born, he would have no reason to keep Hisoka alive for even a moment. He'd kill Hisoka and steal the baby right from his cold dead fingers. He leaned over the smaller figure kissing away his fear with a gentle brush of his lips against the pale pink of Hisoka's mouth. "I'm going to ask Tatsumi.." This brought a shudder through the man. All those bills... "to watch over you while I'm gone. You know he won't let Muraki get near you or Keitaro." He ran his hand over the boys cheek as he walked backwards towards the door. "I'll be back very soon Hisoka."

They kept Hisoka in the hospital only a matter of 2 days. They'd stitched him up after the C-section and due to his guardian of death abilities he was quick to heal and recover his strength. The infant didn't seem to be aware or care for the fact of just how close it came to death. He was strong, a great little kicker and quick to grab onto your finger or hair without mercy. He wasn't a fussy baby as thus far. He would wake up in the night with a wet diaper or wanting a bottle and Watari would help out, feeding the baby when Tsuzuki wasn't there or when Hisoka was just too tired to raise himself out of bed. He was all too eager to help them out after all that had happened because of him.

He was eager to be home again, He didn't mind the ministry so much, but he longed for the familiar feeling of home. Plus, the feeling of the people constantly around him without his ability to move away into a secluded part of the room like the library. Now he could sit at home, in all his comforts. He could barely wait for Tsuzuki to opened the door having to hold the infant close to himself. He just wanted to go lay down after all the people that had come yet again that day, bombarding him with their emotions in his weakened.

"Welcome Home 'Soka!" Tsuzuki cheered happily as he kicked opened the door, piling in with the small things Hisoka had Tsuzuki bring him, some clothes, come books, small things.

Everything seemed in order to Hisoka. He couldn't find much out of place. Tsuzuki had actually managed to keep the place rather tidy while he was away. "I'll inspect better later. I just want to go to bed." Hisoka shifted the infant in his arms ever so slightly. He was sleeping so quietly and he didn't want to disturb him.

"Wait Hisoka, I want to tuck you and Keitaro in!" Tsuzuki dropped his things on the floor running up after the boy as he headed down the hallway. "Hisokaaaa!" He whined when the boy didn't slow, making him to have to trot down the hallway to catch up.

Hisoka, having gained back his normal self after a while walked unaffected by the mans whines, eyes closed as he talked. He didn't need to see, he knew this placed by heart. "We have to figure out how we're going to sleep. Keitaro had to have a side of the bed until we get some...thing..." Having opened the door Hisoka opened his eyes, staring with large eyes at the new addition to their room. At the end of their bed was a round basinet with an elegant canopy covering it all decked out in blue, it was held securely but able to swing in order to comfort the baby without having to pick him up. Looking closely you could see a few extra washers on the floor, it was obviously recently constructed. There were a few stuffed animals, small, soft fuzzy kind, purposely made for babies. And then, there in the corner was one of those nursery chairs, the kind that rocked with the foot stool that rocked with you. A small changing table, shelves partially stocked with diapers, wipes, power and for decoration a few bottles.

With large eyes he turned back to Tsuzuki who sat there in the doorway with a goofy smile. "How did you pay for all this?"

"Aww... 'Soka. You ruined it. I wanted to see your first reaction when you saw it."

"You didn't answer me Tsuzuki.." Hisoka's tone lowered along with his eyes. "How did you pay for this?"

"I just took a little bit out of my pay every so often. WE still have enough to make it, even with Keitaro Hisoka. I did the math.

In Hisoka's mind, a thought bubbled appeared. Picture of Tsuzuki+ a math textbook a big nnnnnnnnnnnnn! NO! Hisoka came back to reality with narrowed eyes. "If Tatsumi comes after us.. I wont hesitate to point out your hiding place..."

" 'Soka- chan! you're so meeeeaaan!"

The two continued to argue a bit as Hisoka inspected the quality of the furniture and evaluated how much it would cost and how much had gone missing from the paychecks. Little did they know someone was watching their every move.

Hisoka lay the baby down in the basinet, finally giving into the fact that Tsuzuki had already spent the money and there was no use arguing about it. He watched the infant sleep, it was such a feeling inside that he'd never before felt as he watch his infant son sleep like that. It was a warming feeling that spread from the center of his body out to the tips of his finger. "You wanted him, didn't you Tsuzuki. You wanted me to keep him no matter what... even if it was Muraki's..."

"I would have you do what you wanted Hisoka." Tsuzuki sat down on the edge of the bed next to Hisoka who sat next to the baby. He pulled the boys hands in his own, loving the look in his eyes. "I wouldn't have asked you to keep it if you didn't want to. It was your choice, Hisoka. I wanted you to be happy. If that meant giving up the baby, I would have supported you with 100 of my heart."

Hisoka stared into the deep purple orbs for long moments. "Liar..." Was all he could say before he buried his face in the mans chest. He could feel it way deep down in Tsuzuki's heart. 'You wanted this baby more than anything, and you would have done anything to see it be yours, even make a pact with the devil...'

Yay.. Sequel! 1752 words. Not bad for an introduction. well, keep up the reviews.


	2. Chapter 2

Yaoi-ness in this one folks. nothing too descriptive but.. still... don't flame if you don't like. you were warned. :waits fro dumb flamers to flame anyway cause they have no life...:

Hisoka tugged more insistently at the blankets. Tsuzuki, while Hisoka was up rocking the baby asleep had fallen asleep, Hisoka didn't really care, let him sleep, as long as he got to go to sleep now. The only thing difficult about this, was that Tsuzuki had stolen all the blankets and wrapped himself up like an oversized Christmas present in Hisoka's side of the blankets! "Baka... move.. come on...MOVE!" Hisoka lifted his pillow from the top of the bed and whapped Tsuzuki quite harshly a couple of times waiting for the man to startle awake and vainly struggle to protect himself from the borage of pillow falling at him. It was then that Hisoka took the opportunity grab a handful of blanket and yank it away from his lover and partner. He collapsed onto the bed instantly upon receiving the blankets. He was so completely and utterly exhausted. It was only the first day of being home with the baby and already he found himself regretting. He pulled the pillow from bashing in Tsuzuki's face up on top of his own head, burring himself in the blankets.

Tsuzuki on the other hand was very much awake at the moment. He'd not really meant to fall asleep before Hisoka came to bed. He just thought he'd come to bed and wait fro him, then his eyes began to drift closed. Before he knew it he was off in dreamland without knowing and unable to wake himself up. He had to admit though that he wished Hisoka hadn't woken him up in such a violent manner, but he was glad all the same to have been woken up. Hisoka had his back to him, just the right opportunity. He scooted right up behind His little blonde mommy. He wrapped his arms around him pulling the boy in against him tightly, kissing and blowing hot breath against the boys neck. While his own hips brushed back and forth against the boys rear ever so gently themselves he found his own hand wandering down from Hisoka's chest where he'd been teasing the boy through hi long night shirt down his remarkably thinning tummy, he'd lost a lot just by giving birth it seemed like, his tummy was already visibly smaller, flatter, to play across his hipbone, teasingly lifting his overly large shirt up. It's been so long, and though Tsuzuki was very understanding in the fact of pregnancy and all, not making any moves since then, had been torture to him. Even at Hisoka's last month where he was at his largest, he was still just so cute, when he ate, when he slept. Tsuzuki wanted this so bad.

Hisoka tried pulling away and yet he also pushed back when Tsuzuki's hips pushed forward to rub against his backside. A part of him, way deep down inside wanted this so bad, his body craved it and his heart was aching for Tsuzuki's intimate touch. His body gave no hesitation in reacting to Tsuzuki's touch, his feather light caresses. But he was so tired. He didn't know if he should push him away and roll over to go to sleep, or roll over into Tsuzuki's arms and kiss back. Already he was feeling the moan growing in his throat as he opened his neck more for Tsuzuki to nibble and suck. The moan broke free from his lips as the chocolate haired man lifted himself from the bed only a bi and flipped the boy onto his back hands landing bent at the elbow and level with his eyes. There was barely any noticeable pause at all before his lips where at the boys neck again, his hands working their way across his body. His body arched into Tsuzuki's and his hands went to grip the boys bare back. He never wore a shirt to bed, sometimes only a nice pair of PJ bottoms. His hands fought to stick to the mans sweaty back when a flare of pain struck form his tailbone working in both directions simultaneously towards both his toes and straight up along his spine, sending out sparks to all his limbs as it traveled along his central nervous system up to his brain. A loud ringing struck in his head as images of red shot through his mind. Two figures bathed in red light and red petals, lay in a sea of blood, one bond and struggling. "No...!" was all he managed to gasp out as his body trembled and arched against Tsuzuki.

Tsuzuki kept his hold on Hisoka, an arm wrapped about his mid-section as he arched up. He held the boy tighter, taking his trembling and small gasp as only a sign of enjoyment, a cry from excitement. He continued pressing his kisses to the boys neck, kissing up to his ear, suckling the shell of cartilage before blowing hot air on him as he whisper it the boys ear. "I love you, Hisoka. I'll always love you."

"Always mine. My poppet. My doll, forever. Always." Was all that reached the boys ears as the image of the two figures bathed in blood, thick and dark enough to be black flashed more and more violently in his mind and his body trembled. Hisoka opened his mouth, ready to let loose a scream, silent or other, but then, just then, Keitaro let out a long crying wail from his basinet at the foot of their bed, screaming his little lungs out as he rocked the cradle with the strength of his kicks and punches at the air and at the blanket over him. It was at the same moment, the pain, the images, everything, disappeared from Hisoka's body as if it'd never been there from the start.

Tsuzuki was quick to loose the mood, his large purple eyes growing innocent as ever as he moved back on his calves and turned back to see the source of the cries. "Keitaro's up.." ?He said as he moved from off Hisoka's legs and crawled to the end of the bed. "I think he's hungry... I don't feel anything so I don't think he needs a diaper change. or maybe he was just hot under that blanket..." Tsuzuki continued on about what he thought could be wrong with the baby labeling everything from hunger to gas and on.

This left Hisoka with his much needed minute alone. His heart had been beating fast, and this gave him the time he needed to calm it. He lifted himself against the headboard, pulling the sleeve of his nightshirt up from where it had fallen, or was pulled down to reveal his neck and shoulder to be lavished in kisses and small, half hearted love bites that might have grown larger if given the opportunity. He didn't know what had come over him, but at the moment he didn't want to be touched. But he did want to hold his son. He was thinking about kicking Tsuzuki out of the bed to give Keitaro Tsuzuki's spot and make the man sleep out on the couch for his stunts.

"I think I'll just go get the little guy a bottle." Tsuzuki said, lifting himself from the bed making the weight shift which helped to gather Hisoka's attention. "That should calm him down."

"No!" Hisoka called as he all but leap from the bed, desperate to beat Tsuzuki to the fridge to get Keitaro a bottle. "I'll take care of him."

"But Hisoka.. You've been up all night already with him. Get some sleep I can take care of him."

"No. I want to." Hisoka leaned over the basinet lifting his crying son up who quieted a bit in his parents arms. He wrapped the baby's blanket around him securely and held him to his chest. "It's okay, really. Go to bed, I want to take care of Keitaro."

Tsuzuki seemed very reluctant but eventually decided to heed Hisoka's advice and headed to bed. The mood was gone and he doubted Hisoka was in one either after taking care of the baby all night. He was suddenly tired, like the only thing keeping him up was his attempts on Hisoka and the thought that he had to take care of his beautiful little newborn son. He was quick to sleep.

Hisoka carried the baby to the kitchen, never once letting the baby down. Hisoka thought it kind of funny that the baby would wake at just that moment. It was like the baby was trying to distract Tsuzuki from him and listening to Hisoka's inner most thoughts. It was just as he was about to cross the thresh hold into the kitchen that he felt it, the same blinding white pain creeping from the base of his spine through his entire body, dancing from nerve to nerve with heedless attention to the pain it caused it's owner. His skin burned with the curse and his body lost control of itself as his knees buckled under him. He held Keitaro closer to him still. His body hunched in pain but protected by his body was the baby, wrapped defensively in his parents arms, muffling his crying even further than the mere distance between them and his father..

"What's.. wrong with me!"

DUN, DUN, DUN! lol. yup. I have a major migraine that hasn't gone away for 2 days now, so don't mind any spelling/grammar errors or the shortness of it. Thank you. Hope you like the funny/yaoi-ness/ angst-ness of 1542 words. R & R please. and if you leave it signed, I'd be glad to check out any stories you may have yourself, I love being able to find new author/ stories I like, like that. That's how I mainly find anime too... so yup, go review. :Arnold (terminator) voice..: GO NOW! DO IT! lol...


	3. Chapter 3

Hisoka sat under the running water of the showerhead, kneeling on the shower's tiled floor. He stared up at the falling drops with dull eyes. His body was quick to change back to normal which he was happy about, he put it off as the speeded abilities of the guardian of death thing, it must have speeded up his metabolism. Still, there was a mark there that hadn't gone away even after the cut had healed after surgery. It was so thin, so light it was had to notice but he could see it, cause he knew just where to look for it, could feel it as his hand came to rest on it. He still couldn't tell what was wrong with him, he wanted to know so badly but just couldn't tell.

Keitaro woke up every night just when Tsuzuki tried getting intimate with Hisoka, like he seemed to know what they were doing and didn't want to take a chance at having a younger sibling. Watari was working on the solution to Hisoka's condition but he was still able to give birth to children, for the moment. That's why Tsuzuki had prepared, buying protection for that sort of thing to prevent what happened with Keitaro from happening again. Guess Keitaro just didn't want another little baby taking away his spot light. Not that Hisoka minded. Every time Tsuzuki tried to touch him an incredible pain would flare through his body setting each nerve on fire with molten lava.

"Bon? You in there?" A knock came at the bathroom door. It must be Watari, He'd taken Keitaro for a while to baby sit while Hisoka did a few things for himself, such as being able to take his shower. since Tsuzuki had headed back to work to support them, Hisoka wasn't expected back for a long while now though. He must have lost track of time and stayed in the shower for too long.

"I'll be right out Watari, sorry for taking so long, I lost track of time!" Watari heard the boy call through the door. The water was quickly turned off and he could hear rustling and rushing about on the other side. The baby fidgeted a bit himself in Watari's arms, fussing and crying in boredom or frustration it sounded like.

"Don't rush Bon! It's okay, I don't mind watching him for a bit longer if you want. Just wanted to make sure everything was okay with you."

"No, everything's fine I'll be right out then you can get back to whatever you want to do." There was a bit of rustling around on the other side for a few more moments so Watari decided to take a seat, cradling and rocking Keitaro when he began to fuss. Watari took a guess that he was hungry, he began to bubble and foam and gum at his own gums. It was a rather cute to see. But he waited, the way it sounds, Hisoka couldn't wait to see little Keitaro and he figured mom... uh.. dad.. Hisoka would want to feed him.

A moment or two later the bathroom door opened letting out a mist of steam from the hot water of the shower that raised the temperature and filled the room with an eerie feel. Emerging from the steam came a figure dressed a long white robe from the only guess Watari could take from the hazy-ness that was made by the water vapor, with a white head...

For a long moment Watari's heart stopped. The figure was in all white, and didn't make a noise as to be recognized. The only one that would casually wear all white like that was the only person that if he was to ever see again in his immortal life, it would be too soon. But he didn't hear anything from Hisoka, and he did come from the bathroom. If he was to have attacked Hisoka he should have heard something at least. He wrapped his arms tighter around the baby, his leg muscles tightening in a quick and sudden adrenaline rush that began at the glance of a figure so strikingly familiar.

The steam cleared away however and before Watari bolted he could make out the figure to be non other than just Hisoka in an oversized robe with a towel wrapped around his wet hair, stray strands falling and curling from under the turban wrapped towel. Watari stared fir long moments. He was nearly certain that it was... He shook his head, loosening his grip on the fussing and whining infant. Watari had his suspicious. That's part of the reason why he'd come to give Keitaro to him instead of waiting for the boy to come back to him. There were thing he had to talk to the boy about that he wasn't sure either Tsuzuki or Hisoka would want to hear but he figured, out of the two of them, Hisoka would be best to tell it too. He was younger, but plainly more mature and stable than Tsuzuki could be. He wouldn't blow up at Watari the way Tsuzuki could, nor would he ask those dumb questions or interrupt him for a snack break.

Hisoka took a look around, looking for where the blonde, honey eyed man had disappeared to. He knew he had to be around. Spotting him in the living room from the corner of his eye, sitting on the couch he headed that way. The baby began fussing, kicking and trying to break free from Watari the moment Hisoka walk into the room. He knew his mother was here now and he didn't want to be held by any one other than Hisoka. Hisoka was quick to pull his son from Watari's arms, lifting him up so Keitaro's head rested on his shoulder. Watari offered the blanket that had fallen from the infant with a smile to Hisoka, who took it and wrapped it around the babys body.

"Think he's hungry." Was all Watari said, but Hisoka already seemed to be heading to the kitchen. Watari watched the new mother with a complete mixture of emotions. He was so awed by a paternal bond they seemed to have. Hisoka always knew just what Keitaro needed before even checking. He watched them, they were so cute and it made him kind of jealous. He almost wished it was his son, or that Hisoka was his own. He had to admit, he'd often thought about the boy, thought about the possibilities of what Hisoka was sexually wise. It was really rather iffy for a while. He seemed really close to Tsuzuki, and with all that had happened between him and Muraki. It was quite possible that that would have the effect to scare the boy for life, or afterlife. But he seemed to have really fallen for Tsubaki while she was alive. It had really killed Hisoka inside to end her life the way it was all meant to be. Regardless of what had to be done, he knew just how much it could sting and pull at your heart

He'd partner the boy with everyone he could think of in his mind, evaluating the relationship. Tatsumi and Hisoka. Interesting, to say the least. It could have worked out for a while, they both had the same idea of saving money, home cooking and stern, logical way of thinking with their minds instead of with their heart. and they both had that cute thing of being so embarrassed when it showed that they actually did care, it was cute to watch either of them blush or storm off in a humiliated rage. ,But they were both so cold, it wouldn't have been much of a relationship at all now would it. Hisoka and Terazuma. The boy did seem to have a certain respect for the man. After seeing him in archery, Watari notice the way Hisoka looked at him. Guess he sort of figured, with the way that Hisoka was taught in kendo and archery, that Terazuma would something like what he could have grown up to look like one day. But Hisoka was too cute for him. He would break out again by just looking into his beautiful eyes when Hisoka would show every beautiful thing inside him. Wakaba was a nice thought. But she seemed so much like Tsuzuki, it was almost a shoe in. But she did seem a little too perky and cheery for the near gothic Hisoka. Of course there was Saya and Yuma, that was am image he'd been fighting to get out of his head since he first thought of it. Poor Hisoka in pink house dresses every damn day with his hair all up in braids and ribbons. they'd turn the poor kid into a cross-dresser! Tears ran down his face at just the thought.

He opened his eyes to see Hisoka feeding the baby. They were both such a beautiful sight there, the baby in the arms of it's mother, sucking away at his bottle, his little eyes locked on those of his mother. Hisoka loved Keitaro, that was so painfully clear. Hisoka could not take his eyes off the infant, not once, he kept his eyes locked with the babys, leaning over as he fed him his bottle and turned to stare as he lifted him to his shoulder for a little burp as he patted and rubbed his back in tiny circles. Of course, the thought of Himself and the boy went through his mind. He thought about how much he'd love to see the boy the way Hisoka only let Tsuzuki see him, naked of all his cold barriers and completely open to him. He wished he could see all that inner beauty that he could feel radiating out of him. But he wasn't suit for Hisoka, Hisoka deserved better, Hisoka deserved Tsuzuki, cause though he's a bumbling, sugar rushed, money wasting idiot. He loved Hisoka with every bit of his heart. If Tsuzuki didn't have Hisoka... He would have wasted away to nothing a long time ago.

The baby had fallen asleep in Hisoka's arms, with the bottle still caught between his soft little bay gums. There was light breathing and a small suck on his bottle from time to time as he slept nearly unmoving in his mothers arms. Hisoka smiled down at the baby then looked up to see Watari staring at him. He's usually observant enough of an empath to know when someone's watching him but this time he was so caught up in his son, he hadn't realized Watari staring at him so intensely. "Watari... something.. wrong?"

Hisoka's voice caught Watari off guard and he was quick to cover with a large, goofy grin of his. "Well really I'd just like to talk to you if it'd be okay. I got a few things I'd like to discuss about Keitaro."

"Is something wrong with him?" Worry overcame Hisoka's beautiful face, his eyes widening and searching Watari's every move for any sign that indicated Watari's lying or true thoughts. He even went so far as to open his barriers more than he usually did with anyone but Tsuzuki, letting his powers wonder, searching for the answers in Watari's emotions.

"Nothing's really wrong it's just. There's some special things we should discuss. I thought it safer to talk to you first about this than Tsuzuki. Do you think you would have the time?"

Hisoka nodded, motioning with his head for the scientist to follow him as he lifted himself as softly as he could from the couch he'd sat on to feed Keitaro. He didn't want to wake the baby, he was do for his nap about now anyway and it would give Hisoka bit more time to clean the house and such after Watari left if he hadn't woken up by then. He kicked open His and Tsuzuki's bedroom door, laying the baby down in his basinet as he instructed Watari to relax and find a place to sit. Watari chose to sit on the bed as he would suspect, the only other seat in this room was the rocker Tsuzuki had bought Hisoka when the baby came. "So.. What's up that you need to talk about Watari..." Hisoka asked hesitantly after tucking his new son in, worried to take a seat next to the blonde guardian of death.

"It's actually nothing really. It's just.. well. It's unusual don't you think that.. you and Tsuzuki, everyone for that matter is dead here. But, you gave birth to a living child.." Hisoka looked up at the man from where he had been sitting with his head down. He had a feeling about this that didn't set well with him. "Well, it seems weird for dead, immortal being to give life to a live being right, so, I think I know how Keitaro's going to be. I think, He's going to grow like a normal human would but.. I think after a certain point, he's going to be difficult to age, Hisoka. He'd going to be like Tsuzuki while he was alive, unable to die by normal means. In other words you gave birth to an true immortal. I've been giving it some thought recently and, I think that's what Muraki had in mind. I think that's why he'd been so determined to keep the baby for himself. It would have been the same to have Muraki if it was or wasn't Tsuzuki's. It's be at least part immortal and be perfect for any sick experiment or task he would have for it." Watari had began to put more feeling into his words than he'd intended to. The mention and talk of Muraki was enough to boil his blood. But what he didn't notice, was the reaction from Hisoka. He hadn't thought about the way the mans name could get under Hisoka's skin the way it was. By the time he'd realized, Hisoka was looking down again, his body trembling ever so slightly to the eye but worse to the touch. "Hisoka I..."

"No. It needs to be said sometimes... He's still alive and I know he's still out there scheming..." His fist clenched at his loose pants. He found, around the house, he liked to wear a nice pair of sweats or Tsuzuki's PJ bottoms, leaving enough fabric that his jeans would not have provided, to clench in his fists till his knuckles turned white. "I know he still wants Keitaro... I can feel it..." A fussing came from the bassinet then, the type like when a child is having a nightmare that's only just begun and start to toss subconsciously in their beds. Hisoka leaned over, hushing and whispering soothing and promising words to the infant as he rocked the cradle. Watari thought it best to move off the subject and he found no greater time than now for the next subject.

"Also... if he was to take after Tsuzuki with his near immortality while actually still being alive, then he has to take something from you as well don't you think..." Hisoka looked up at him for this. He was somewhat calmer, the baby had stopped fussing, but now he was confused as to what the hell Watari was saying. "I hear know what happens at night... how you and Tsuzuki try to uh..." A bright blush came across both their faces, brighter though over Hisoka's. He swore to himself, if Tsuzuki had told anybody anything about him in bed...! "Keitaro doesn't let you... does he..?"

The blush disappeared from Hisoka's face, replaced by one fo thought, worry and confusion. "How do you know all this...?"

"It's all over your face. You're not sleeping again, it's got to be the nightmares again, isn't it. I was too blind to see it the first time but those dark circle under your eyes aren't going unnoticed this time. You're not sleeping well because you're thinking about him and you're making Keitaro think of him. Keitaro knows Hisoka, he knows who Muraki is and what he's tried..."

"What are you talking about..." Watari wasn't completely correct about why he wasn't sleeping, it was more than just the nightmares, the curse, the pain at Tsuzuki's touch. But that was something he wanted to find out for himself and not something he wanted to tell Watari so he'll just let Watari think it's only the nightmares, they were concerned but it's less if they think it's just nightmares, he's had those since long before he even came to the ministry.

"Hisoka, Keitaro's feeling what you're feeling and what your thinking. That's why he knows who you are so easily, why he hates being held by anyone different. That's why just now, when you were thinking of Muraki, when you were getting yourself upset and fired up, ready to dig your nails into your own flesh going right through your pants they were fisted so tightly, he began to fuss. He's an empath just like you are Hisoka."

Hisoka's back went stiff. He really hadn't though about the consequences of passing on his beloved 'gift' to any of his offspring. Even before he'd actually gotten pregnant with Keitaro, when he just thought about the man he could have become if Muraki hadn't killed him and the family he might have one day been able to raise, he'd never put that factor into it, sometime in the factor of who would marry him when he got depressed, but never in his children. He didn't want this child to be burdened with such a thing. "You.. mean.."

"I think his abilities are low. It could just be because he's young, it might develop better with time, as he gets older letting him to use it as strongly as your own reacts, perhaps with help from you, he could learn to control it. Or, there's the chance, it might be this low for the rest of his life. I think, he's so strongly connected to him because you're his mother. It's a bond you two have got to share, the strongest one he might ever have."

Hisoka stared, his head bowed but never really looking at anything. A bond with a mother. the strongest bond. Keitaro was bound to him emotionally, mentally...? Were all his thoughts being transferred to his son? It would explain why every time He was in pain Keitaro would cry, why he'd wake from a peaceful sleep. Keitaro was really bound to him.. hid mother...

3093 words! a new record for a single chapter! and oh oh oh! it's going to be great, I know what the next chapter's going to be about! Hisoka's past.. does anybody want to know about poor Hisoka's past? R&R and no flames, I'll laugh at flames... HAHAHAHAHA


	4. Chapter 4

Hisoka curled into a tight little ball on cool cement floor. His mommy was mad again, and she was a frustrated, angry, danger zone kind of mad. Even through the layers and layers of wood, steel, cement and housing materials that separated them, he could feel her emotions strong and clear like she was actually touching him. For a moment, just a moment he remembered the feeling his mommy used to give him when she rocked him to sleep at night nor when he got older, when she stroked his hair and sang to him till he finally drifted into sleep.

He hadn't been weird t hen, hadn't been a monster yet. Now he was a monster, not a boy, not a human at all. His mommy said so, so did his dad. They all hated him, they all hated him with such hurtful emotions that tore a scream from him every time he even looked into their eyes. But still, he knew his mommy. He had known her from the day he was born was what she used to tell him. She used to be so proud of him and praise him with such kind words. She used to even brag to daddy about how it was her that he first talked too, that he took his first steps to. and like every baby need to be taught who their parents were at a young age, he'd always accepted her as hi mommy without thought, without having to be taught.

It came only natural to him later in life that he would follow his mom around, that he would copy any and everything he saw her do. He didn't think it was anything bad, he wanted to be like his mommy and thought it was love in his child's mind. He grew closer and closer to his mom each day. The servants of the house were taught to him, to be just that, servants. He didn't really talk to any of them, nor did he really care for any of them. He just wanted to wake up, run into his mommy's room and see her smiling face as she dressed him and prepared him for the day. Besides, though he liked his daddy, his daddy was strong, quite the manly type. But his daddy, though sometimes nice, was strict and stern with him. He often yelled at him when he did something wrong or if he cried too often or for no reason. His mommy never did any of that to him, never yelled. It was natural for a bond to build between the two, until that terrible day.

She'd been in a fight with his daddy again. He could feel her sadness and frustrated anger radiating when he'd been brought back to the house. He'd been escorted away by one of the servants, taken outside among the cherry blossom trees when his father had come in. He had felt it then, the anger in his mommy's soul, the unstoppable fire that had started for reasons that were still far too old and complicated for him to understand. He'd felt it stronger and stronger as it grew, even as he and the female servant his mommy had ordered to take him away put more and more distance between them and his mommy even long after the house itself had disappeared from sight as he twisted and turned back, wanting to be with his mommy as he felt a powerful feeling of dread come over him and then the sensation of pain. It made him yelp and he startled the servant who feared he's hurt himself by falling or getting a splinter or some such thing stuck in his foot or body somewhere. She checked him up and own over and over again, constantly asking what it was that had made him yelp like that but he never really did answer her, only grunting and groaning, shrugging every once in a while when her roaming and constantly moving hands got a bit too annoying. He'd started feeling like that lately, feeling what his mommy felt, not only that, but what others did too, when they touched him. He got very tired very easily, of the servant groping him in hopes of finding a reason or an out cry.

After a long time of being checked over and over again, finally the servant had given up, passing the yelp off as a thing a child would do to get attention. Of course, he wanted his mom and it was a childish way to tell her that he wanted to go back, there seemed to be no physical damage done what so ever, she'd even check each one of his little toes and fingers for splinters and the such and nothing there but clean little hands and toes. Taking his hands, after having retied hi shoes and putting him back on his feet again they headed back, the son had gone more than halfway across the sky by then and the pinks and purples of the setting sky made a beautiful scenery to watch the blooming and falling soft pink petals of the cherry blossom flower falling from the thin young branches of the trees. He'd away thought it was too early for them to be falling...

When the servant had taken him back to the room, announcing her presence and releasing his hand with a wave of his mommy's hand he went running with open arms to her, looking instantly for a hug, he instead got no hug but was allowed to hug her leg. He was still so small, he hated how people teased him about it, how thin and tiny he was. Even though he was young, he was still kind of on the small side for his age. The servant was dismissed which some how opened the room to Hisoka. With her there, it seemed stuffy, like it was a large party in there and it was so over stuffed you couldn't moved, he hated when his parents had parties like that, too much attention drawn to him from too many people he didn't know or just didn't want the attention from. It was then that he looked up to see the large read mark across his mommy's face, the right cheek, the exact sensation he'd felt earlier, the pain he felt and the after feeling of a tingling throb that he felt now. Then a feeling washed over him again as his mommy placed a hand on the top of his head, shifting through his short wheat blonde locks, staring at him with a strange look in his eyes. Jealousy. He knew it, or at least he knew the child's version of it. The feeling you get when you see a new toy you can't get, or a toy in the hands of another kid that won't let you play with it or them. But still, he knew it to be jealousy.

"Mommy... why are you jealous?"

With those 5 little words he'd sealed away any possibility of what could have at on point been a normal life. After many question as to how or why he thought his mommy was jealous, that's when they label him a monster. They'd figured out how he knew exactly what they were feeling, reading their minds, taking their thoughts. It was then that the praise stopped, that he was no longer her little angel. She began calling him demon, speaking of taking him to the river and drowning him or leaving him in the woods somewhere. She cursed at him, spat at him when she saw him. She called him demon child, monster, freak. All those stupid names that stung like hell in his heart, still stung against his strongest wishes to make it stop.

As he got older and read more, explored as normal boys did, he would learn a great secret he hadn't known during his younger years of childhood. As puberty began to set in and he began to explore his own body, read and study on the bodies of other, mainly the female sex, he learned just where babies came from, no silly stories of storks, fairies or any other such tales told to you when you're too little to be told the real truth. It was then that he figured out for himself, just dwelling on his past and his hideous outlook of a future rotting away in this dank basement cell. His mom had given birth to him, it was that reason that he was closest to her and why, even being somewhat close to his father, it had never been like his mother. she had carried him from the moment his first cell was made to the time he took his first breath, after that it was her that had nursed him with her bosom. She was more a part of him than he would ever be his dad. It was that which had ruined his life, that dumb old connection to his birth mother.

Hisoka snapped back. He didn't want the baby to be connected to him. He didn't want the baby to feel the same feelings of hate toward him as he felt towards his mother once he'd gotten the answer in his own mind. He blamed her for everything that had happened, for his abnormality, for his exile from his family, friends, from the natural world. He didn't want his son to have to go through the torture of empathy at all. turning quickly and determinedly to Watari he asked. "Is there anything we can do to stop or take away his powers...?"

1613 words, short... but I'm working on 2-3hours of sleep for the past two days straight! (literally went to bed at 8am, woke up at 10-11 am the same day and been up since...) so yeah, a little history lesson on Hisoka... yay! I LOVE REVIEWS!


	5. Chapter 5

"Hisoka!" Watari kind of shouted at the sudden outburst. Hisoka had been sitting there so quietly, not a, 'how my god is he alright?' kind of quiet, just, a deep thought kind of silence that took hold when Hisoka went into his trances. He'd been most unsuspecting of an outburst from the quiet young man. and the question, such a question was the type that, when Watari had played any and all possibilities to his or Tsuzuki's reactions to this situation in his mind for preparing himself for this moment, this.. was the last thing he thought he'd hear, even from Hisoka. "Hisoka, how could you even ask liked that! WE can't get rid of his powers anymore than we can yours. It's a blood and trait thing, it's not like any of us who got our powers after we died. We can't just release him from what this is."

"I don't want him to have to have those powers. Tsuzuki.. Tsuzuki's immortality... it's not much, he doesn't have to live on earth, people won't notice the way they did for Tsuzuki, especially... with changing times, most won't even remember him long enough to realize.. but.. empathy... It's something that's a nightmare, even in this plain of existence! He'll be confused all his life and..."

Watari watched the boy in a new light. He realized there was something deeper than just his words. There was a deep, hidden pain that he could see just radiating from his eyes. Hisoka had already been through all of it, it wasn't just a worry fro his own son based of a simple fear. Hisoka had lived with this unusual ability for most of his life, and would have to for the rest of eternity. He was exiled from his family for it, pushed away by society. Really, he had a point to worry, if Keitaro was to actually evolve his powers and get as strong as Hisoka's, it could be hard for him to live, even with permission, he might not be able to pass over into the world of the living with or without Hisoka or Tsuzuki. Without control, other peoples emotions could really hurt him. And there was a sneaking suspicion that if Keitaro could feel Hisoka.. Hisoka could feel Keitaro.

"Hisoka, you're not talking from just mere thought, are you? You know what this is don't you, you've been through it before with your own family haven't you..." He ducked his head, trying to catch a look at Hisoka's face from where he'd turned it down. His voice had trailed off into a whispered mumble of syllables and as his voice lowered so had his head, his long, too long, blonde bangs shadowing his emerald eyes. When he tried to see him though, Hisoka looked at him, tilting his head to allow his bangs to fall more to the side. His emerald eyes shone in the soft light from the moist beads of salty water gather on his dark, thick bottom lashes.

Watari took in a gasp of breath. Hisoka looked so adorable this way, so beautiful. He hated to see him cry but he looked so pretty with the tears in his eyes, his little nose moving when he sniffled silently as he could a few times. He was so cute trying to hide everything, the pain in his heart, shining through his bright green eyes. It was hypnotizing...

Hisoka let out a loud gasp and a tiny cry of protest as Watari fell on him, on of his hands trapped under his back from the way they fell. "Watar...?" A muffled gasp and 'hmph' sound escaped from between his lips as Watari pressed his mouth to Hisoka's puffed, petal pink lips. His silky, white robe began to fall from his left shoulder exposing a good deal of his shoulder and upper chest, revealing his entire left collarbone. The hand under his back, place just at the arch of his back, partially on the rounded curve of his bottom pushed him up to meet Watari's body, melding their lower bodies together. With the gasp Watari took advantage probing his tongue in to Hisoka's hot mouth, sliding over his tongue and teeth. Even knowing he wasn't Hisoka still tasted innocent, a taste that brought to mind flowers, sweetness like fruits and sugar, strawberries and cherries with a bit of sweet, sweet creme.

Hisoka squirmed, his back arching more into Watari from the pain of sensations flooding in. There was such a strange mix, thing he'd sensed before, but never like this. There was lust, there was desire and passion, but there was something else there, jealousy, admiration...traces of love...? Love? Red and white flashes crossed his vision, falling flecks of pink, black.. Had Watari been looking he would have seen the flare of red across Hisoka's pale white skin, made paler from the situation. the curse marks burned, and flashed with a glowing light bright, dim back to bright again. A silent scream took him first, his mouth opened wide against Watari's mouth. then, a long moment into the silent scream, sound finally forced its way from his lungs, past his vocal cords and out his mouth in a scream that in less than 1/110th of a second was joined by a long drawn out wail from his infant son laying in his cradle.

Watari seemed to snap out of whatever world he had disappeared into, a glaze vanishing from his eyes. He separated his lips from Hisoka's, loosening the hold he had on his back and the hand he had fisted into Hisoka's soft wheat blonde locks, looking up to the rocking cradle with the crying, screaming, kicking infant inside it. Hisoka took this moment to push Watari off him, shoving the older man back against the headboard on the other side of the bed. His breathing was heavy, labored and his face both pale and red from screaming and fright. His right hand, shaking, reached for his left side of the robe that had fallen from his shoulder, fumbling with numb fingers in trying to pull it back though he ended up just holding it up, staring with wide, frightened green eyes. In the back Keitaro continued to scream and wail his little lungs out, calling his mom for attention for comfort.

"Hisoka..." Watari reached out a hand for the boy, his hair and clothes in a mess. Hisoka jumped away from his hand, his breathing picking up in pace.

"Hisoka! I'm home!" A bright cheery voice called from the front door. Watari began to shake. Tsuzuki's wrath was the worst that any shinigami could face. Hisoka tells Tsuzuki what he tried and, it would be the end of Watari's immortal life.

Hisoka gave Watari one last looked before straightening himself a bit, making quick work of getting his still crying son from his basinet and making his way to the door. With the door open, he turned to look back at Watari one last time before leaving the man in the room alone. Watari had no choice. When Hisoka told him, he'd just take it, he wasn't gunna lie to Tsuzuki. He didn't know what had come over him, he didn't even care if he did find out at the moment, he was more interested in keeping it from happening again and even sort of wanted a punishment for daring to hurt Hisoka like that. He straightened himself a bit, fixing his hair and straightening his lab coat. He took what he was sure to be his last breath before opening and walking out the door.

He found Hisoka out in the living room standing close to Tsuzuki. He held the baby close to his chest, hiding almost halfway behind Tsuzuki. His face was serious, it's normal style when he was weary of the people around him. It was so much like when he first showed up and he didn't trust a single one of them. It dug at his heart. But Tsuzuki didn't look angry, in fact he looked downright happy.

"Hey Watari! I didn't know you where stopping by!"

Watari was about to say something, his guilt heavy on his heart. But Hisoka.. Hisoka took his turn to speak, staring at Watari the entire time he talked. "Watari was just helping me with Keitaro, he babysat while I was taking my shower."

"Oh, really. Well why don't you have a seat Watari, I'll make some tea for the three of us and we can have a nice conversation." Tsuzuki offered. He began to head into the kitchen having taken off his trench coat and hung it on the hook.

"No, I really have to get hack to my lab. Perhaps I'll taking a rein check on that." He put his shoes back on bowing his head in a gesture of goodbye to Tsuzuki. "Tsuzuki.." and Hisoka, looking at him with those cold eyes. "Hisoka..." There came no answer from Hisoka, just that cold glaring stare.

After the soft click of the door, Tsuzuki took a place standing next to Hisoka, wrapping an arm around him. "What was up with Watari, He doesn't seem himself lately."

Hisoka pressed himself against Tsuzuki, enjoying the closeness, needing it. "No, He doesn't."

1543 words! oh.. Watari fans, don't kill me for OOC-ness or just hate for what he did! It will all explain itself in due time.


	6. Chapter 6

Tsuzuki shook the rattle in front of his sons face. The child didn't react much, he was really rather too young to smile or laugh, but he reacted best a child only a week or two old could react. He seemed rather tired, stretching his arms and yawning showing his adorable little toothless mouth. A slight white gathered at his lips from the milk he'd eaten and the residue it had left in his mouth.

Seeing his son lay out like this, it was just something that he could barely stand. Ever night he came home and took Keitaro while Hisoka fixed dinner he had to fight back his tears that would threaten to fall. The sight of him made his heart melt and suddenly gave him all the reason for life over and over again, filling his being, his every fiber with purpose. Seeing his small little face, his tiny little hands, his puny feet. There were just so many time that came back to him.

That time in Kyoto. He didn't know back then just what he could have if he stayed, he didn't know. Hisoka brought him back from the edge, gave him purpose and life again. Now there was a place for him in Hisoka's heart, a warm place he could always go to. And now, now Hisoka had given a son. IT was rather odd that it had been when he first met Hisoka that he had thought about the regret of never having children of his own. Seeing Hisoka's beautiful face, his innocent, angelic face. It made him jealous. To see such extreme youth and innocence, but then again, it made him guilty, what could have happened to make such a young boy take on a job like a guardian of death. He was shocked of course to see just how closely he was to the boy in their "lives". They'd both been exiled, called demons, monsters, beaten and abused for what they were. The difference between them was that where Tsuzuki had chosen death in the place of a life of torment, Hisoka had spent 16 years fighting for normalcy relentlessly, he'd spent three years fighting for his life under constant fever, wasting away in a hospital bed against his wishes. It was that strength, that will to live that Hisoka had to offer him, the reason why they were fated to meet. Hisoka had given him so much already, and now he risked his own life again, his body, his dignity, everything he had just to protect him, to give him a son. And even now, he was sacrificing his life raising a child, often spending entire days alone, sometimes nights. He owed his little lover a lot.

Hisoka was caught up in preparing for dinner. He was still so tired. He'd rested a bit while Watari had taken Keitaro but he guessed the stress of the day had pushed his even well rested mind to the brink of insanity. Had Tsuzuki not come in when he had there would be no telling what could have happened. Watari had come on so strong, he really wasn't himself, he could feel it deep down in his core. There was a darkness that usually wasn't there in the Scientists soul that had snapped and broken loose into the rest of his body poisoning his mind with evil and wicked thoughts. The scariest part about it however is that Hisoka wasn't as scared of it as he should have been. Part of it seemed familiar and right to him and almost wished something more had happened. He'd berated himself over and over since Tsuzuki had come home about it. He could possibly have been actually feeling that, It was just wrong. He loved Tsuzuki. It had to just be Watari's emotions coming in through his empathy.

"Hisoka Hisoka?" Tsuzuki called from the living room. He'd suspected something from Hisoka, he was , even for him, unusually quiet, and he seemed to be growing more fatigued each day. His hair was kind of messy and so were his clothes. Hisoka never was the type to be lazy and messy, he berated Tsuzuki for it all the time. Perhaps he was getting that depression thing that moms sometimes get after having babies that he heard of. Maybe it wasn't so much depression, maybe he just needed a break from the baby anyway. He put the infant in a basinet wheeled into the living room, covering his little naked body all save for his little diaper with a soft blanket and headed for the kitchen. He snuck up on the distracted blonde wrapping his arms quickly and skillfully around Hisoka's thin and almost feminine waist. "Hiiiisoookaaa.." He said in a sensual yet non-sexual voice, intending on leading his partner into a gentle, relaxed and calming romantic atmosphere.

"No, Tsuzuki." Hisoka sealed himself the way he had done when they were just becoming partners. He had kept himself closed from every physical sign of a relationship in public, not even cuddling or a quick peck on the cheek was allowed. Of course Hisoka always knew that if they had it would lead further later but that wasn't what Tsuzuki was looking for! REALLY!

"Hisoka!" He whined. "I wasn't talking about that! You have the nerve to say I'm the perverted one!" He whined further like a child when Hisoka pushed him from off his back where he'd pressed himself and moved to the next counter to try his best to finish dinner with the whining dog at his heels. "I really wasn't Hisoka you gotta believe me! I just wanted to talk to you, I was thinking, that maybe I could take a few days off next week, I'll ask old man Konoe and I'll stay home to take care of Keitaro for you. You'll have the entire day to yourself."

"You do that and Tatsumi will kill you. We can't afford you taking any days off and they can't keep paying. Besides. I'm fine." He was rather not affected by this. Tsuzuki was always worried nowadays. Everything was just on edge is what he blamed it off to. The new addition, the constant crying, and just a little bit of fatigue.

"Well than how bout we just have Watari check you out, if he says you fine I'll"

"NO!" The bowl Hisoka was holding in his hand was dropped to the counter, startling Tsuzuki from his normal happy smile. He wasn't really that worried about Hisoka it was more of just a tiny suggestion. He wanted to make sure that after Keitaro was born that he'd be okay. He was shaken a bit, his back tense and his hand shaking. He kept himself steadied on the counter his eyes wide and trembling as he drew in shallow gasps of breath. Not him, not him again.

"Hisoka."

His body suddenly became less tense, his body softened as his shaking subsided and he coolly began to pick up the broken pieces of the bowl he'd dropped form the counter. "Sorry about that, must have just lost my grip."

"Hisoka, what's going on?" Tsuzuki's face took on a very serious expression as he changed from the happy mood of playing and trying to help Hisoka to knowing there was something wrong. He wanted to know what it was. Something's been up a ever since Keitaro was born and he wanted to know what it was. "What's happened? You don't want to see Watari anymore and you're obviously not well. You're getting all pale and sick again! Look I can see the color draining from your face even now. What's going on Hisoka? Don't you remember that last time you tried keeping secrets from me we almost lost Keitaro!" His voice was more accusing than he had meant for it to sound.

Hisoka's body had begun to tremble, a mix and jumble of emotions. There was anger seething and boiling inside him a pot, frothing at the edges and the heat that just kept rising, the flames licking over his side and flickering angrily at him as the water from inside over-ran and hit the flames. Finally his hand wavered and the shards he'd been picking up finally sliced deep into his skin. He let out a cry, mixed with pain, physical and emotional, a cry from all his bottle frustration and rage. Tears welled in his eyes and caught on his eyelashes as he gripped his right hand in his left, pulling it to his chest in pain as a stabbing hit his chest. "I'm so sorry! I'm a screw up! Isn't that what you want to say! Just say it already, you can't stand me, you hate me! I lie, I'm a constant nuisance to you, always needing to be saved and always throwing a wrench into the works somehow right! I'm sorry! I didn't mean for any of that to happen, Muraki, Keitaro! I never meant for any of it to happen!"

Tsuzuki realized his mistake just a few moments to late. He tried reaching around the side of Hisoka to see his hand. He had seen quite a spurt of blood when he saw the flash of the glass as the light glared angrily off it when it had cut into Hisoka's soft skin. "Hisoka let me see that..!" He was cut short, shoved with extreme force, the type Hisoka had rarely demonstrated when dealing with Tsuzuki, even when they were really fighting. He could have sworn he saw tears flying in the florescent lighting of the kitchen as Hisoka made quick work to run from the room. He couldn't believe Hisoka had actually had the strength to shove him over on his bottom on the cold kitchen floor. It was long moments before he was on his feet and running after the boy who had already made his way into the living room. There was already a few blankets draped over Hisoka's coat clad shoulder and another wrapped around Keitaro as Hisoka was lifting him from his basinet. "Hisoka wait! What happened? What'd I do"

Hisoka gave the man an evil look, one of his evilest. His eyes were narrowed and lacking in any emotion other than anger. The tears that Tsuzuki had seen earlier left no trace on the boys face as it twisted in anger. He brought the baby boy up to his shoulder with enough force to make sure not to hurt the infant but to warn Tsuzuki to just how serious he was about all this. "I'm leaving. You can pretend now that I was never here, that there were none of the lies and none of the trouble. Muraki should be here soon with the roses. Make sure you're pretty for him." The infant let out a long drawn out wail as Hisoka turned quickly, hair waving as he turned his back to Tsuzuki, turning and slamming the door behind him The room suddenly became deathly silent, distantly Tsuzuki could hear the wail of his son as the two, parent and child, retreated away from the house. He'd missed the blood that graced the sheets of the basinet.

The loud knocking, the constant slamming on the door. Why was it that he was always the one to suffer. It must have been one of the Gushoshins or some other person looking for money for something Tsuzuki broke or even Tsuzuki himself looking for a loan or advance on his pay to go buy sweets or alcohol again. He really had to talk to him about that. Being a father now it was completely and morally wrong to be drinking around the baby or at all for that matter. It was up to Tsuzuki to make an example for the infant to follow some day. Tatsumi tried to roll back over in his bed, pulling the blankets over his head in an attempt to drown out that constant banging. Go away, just go away. It's late I just want to sleep damn it!' The banging, the bell, they both just kept going regardless of what he did to try and get rid of whoever it was in his mind.

"Tatsumi san, please open the door! Please!" That voice. A wailing cry came shortly after, the sound of a newborn infant. It was Hisoka and Keitaro. But why on Earth would they be here now? And why his house? He was quick though to get a robe on now walking with quick and sure steps to the door. All remnants of sleep had suddenly lost effect on Tatsumi's poor sleepy body. Something was wrong. Hisoka wouldn't just pay a visit at this time of night and unannounced. There was a certain urgency in his voice calling him, a sadness in his voice.

"Kurosaki kun, what on Earth are you doing here at this time?" He reached the door, calling out before he'd managed to take the locks from the door. The boy was standing there at the door, the baby cradled against his chest and shoulder bundled in blankets. The boy seemed out of breath, panting from something, his eyes red and puffy, his face hot with a blush of rage. Amazingly enough there was a lack of Tsuzuki. Yes, of course. There roles had truly been reversed lately, Tsuzuki upsetting the young man, sending him running away instead of the usual where it was Hisoka who would say something that Tsuzuki would consider "mean"

"Tatsumi san, I have nowhere else to go." The boy gave a half hearted attempt to calm the infant in his arms. He was so tired, so worn. He hadn't even come right to Tatsumi, he'd been wandering, with Keitaro with him! What had Tsuzuki done this time to make even Kurosaki act so immature and reckless? "Tatsumi san Please."

Tatsumi quickly ushered the boy into his living room, insisting the boy take a seat and relax. The boy was wavering as he walked through the door and into the room. He was so weak, so visibly weak, he was ready to fall over if he didn't sit. Still it took much insisting and threats to get the boy to sit and relax after Tatsumi had offered him some tea or coffee. The boy had of course taken his usual tea, it wasn't as strong as the coffee as he had remembered Hisoka telling him once. He hadn't expected that after he had come to still see Hisoka there with his coat still on and the baby still wrapped securely in his blankets and cradled tightly against Hisoka's body still.

"Kurosaki, what happened?" Tatsumi placed the tea cup on the table in front of the boy. He waited a few moments patiently for an answer but it was when he saw how the boy hesitated to pick up even the cup that he really began to become more hurried, more worried for the boy. He began to inspect him, and it was then that he realized the boys right hand cradling Keitaro's head. There was a stain of red soaking into the white blanket wrapped around the infant, an odd stain that shouldn't be there, on his dominant hand. That was it, his hand was injured, that's why he hadn't picked p the cup, but why? "Let me see you're hand Kurosaki."

The boys heart beat picked up ten fold. He could hear it in his ears as his eyes widened and he looked up to Tatsumi. He hadn't expected the secretary of the ministry to be so bossy thought he maybe should have. Of course the man would be curious, it was his nature. He was the type that needed a reason before doing anything. He didn't want to, but this was the last place he could go, he couldn't go to Watari, the girls would be too weary of him, Terazuma would shut the door in his face, knowing that he WAS with Tsuzuki and all and he obviously couldn't go back home. But he wanted his business to be his own.

"Kurosaki!" Seeing that the infants head was safely cradled on Hisoka's shoulder Tatsumi began to pull at his right hand. Hisoka fought him at first pulling his hand back into himself. The master of shadows however would have none of it. He tugged a bit roughly at the boys wrist finally puling it from the boys will and strength, both equally exhausted by his night. It was then, when he flipped the boys hand around so his palm was up in the air that with a cry of distress from Hisoka and a gasp slipping free from his own lips that he saw it, the deep gash that adorned his hand. After moments of watching, the scariest part of it all was watching that it wasn't healing, not so much in the slightest. Has he gotten it from a fight with Tsuzuki, or even some how when he was out wandering, it should have at least began to heal if not be completely healed without so much of a scar to show where it had been. It wasn't healing, it was still bloody, and perhaps looking even a bit infect. Unnatural for a shinigami.

"What did you do Kurosaki? Did Tsuzuki do this to you tonight Hisoka.?" Tatsumi could barely find his voice as he tried to force the question from his numb lips. For a shinigami to loose there ability to heal. It was never heard of. Only when calming the flame of the serpent was it ever thought to a threat. "Hisoka please.. why isn't it healing, what's wrong with you Hisoka?" His calm, cool voice was now shaky, unable to talk. The blood was just oozing off the side of the boys hands, the stain on Keitaro's blanket seeping in to his skin was tribute to how much and how long the boy was bleeding. He had to know why and how. "Please, let me help you Kurosaki."

"It wasn't Tsuzuki. I just got cut on some glass, that's all." Hisoka wince and gave a whimper as Tatsumi moved his hand again, stretching the damaged skin unintentionally and making a burning flame run across his spine in angry sparks.

"It isn't healing properly Kurosaki, this is not just a cut. Tell me what really happened Kurosaki"

"I did!" Hisoka suddenly found new strength, ripping his hand back from Tatsumi. "Don't call me a liar!" Hisoka glared at the man for a moment who in turn glared back at him, cursing his stubbornness silently with his eyes. Hisoka began to shake again. Putting Keitaro down on the couch, gently laying his squirming son down on the cushion, surrounded by the small decorative pillows for protection to protect the child from falling to the floor. It was the that he shed his coat for the first time since leaving the house. From there he proceeded to lift his shirt, there, a pale ling on his stomach was a line from one side to the other thick and long. There was still a scar, still a marl from all that time of healing after Keitaro had been born. Tatsumi stared with large eyes, first a flash of confusion over came him as he thought about it. When the realization of what exactly Hisoka was trying to get across by showing him this dawned on his his eyes filled with a worried and compassionate understanding.

Timidly he reached out a hand, tracing the scar across the boys belly slowly. "Hisoka" He whispered gently. That's what's been wrong. Hisoka had to be sick alright. He wasn't healing, there should be no scars left on any shinigami, as long as they survive whatever trials they may go through there are never any scars left on them other than those made during their mortal life. These wounds should have healed within minutes, but it's either taking much to long, or it's just not healing at all, it was as if Hisoka was a mortal again. "Why didn't you..."

"I've caused enough trouble as it was." Hisoka turned his back to the secretary, pulling down his shirt as he did. He wrapped his arms about himself, suddenly feeling exposed and vulnerable. "I forced a child on him, I got kidnapped and made him responsible for searching for me for months on end. Worse of all, it all only because I lied, because I refused to come clean with him, cause I couldn't trust him enough to trust him with my secrets, to trust him with my feelings and my heart. I almost killed an innocent life.. It was all my fault" He looked back over to his son lying there on the couch wrapped in the bloody blankets. "I almost got him killed."

"Hisoka, who told you that?" The look in his eyes. It was one a type that he'd seen before. It was pure pain. "Tsuzuki." Tatsumi whispered, snarled in anger. "Hisoka, please take some rest"

"I can't."

"You've had a rough day Hisoka. Keitaro needs it too. Let me clean that out and then we'll get you tucked in. You're staying the night here. Take my bed, I'll take the couch tonight."

"No!"

"You need the room for Keitaro, I'm taking the couch Now come on, let me clean that out and we'll get you and Keitaro settled in for bed." Hisoka protested as Tatsumi dragged out a compact first aid kit. Tatsumi wasn't sure if the wound would require stitches. When he brought up the idea of going to see Watari the boy had strictly forbid it. This concept he fought most furiously about and even Tatsumi feared to force anything more on the boy. Instead he disinfected his wound and dressed it with white bandage. From there he'd tried to make the boy sleep but he'd been to awake, too shaken from the night to sleep. Tatsumi could see his exhaustion, his shaking, but still he refused.

"Please, have some tea then, it'll calm you." Tatsumi handed the boy a warm cup of tea. Little did the boy expect the drugs Tatsumi had stirred into the brown liquid. Nearly immediately after drinking the tea, only a few sips did the boy begin to become dizzy, eyelids heavy and insistently closing on him. Soon he was sleeping soundly, a calm, but not quite peaceful look over his face. A scowl came over his face as he watched Hisoka laying there with Keitaro bundled in some of his old shirts and small blankets. It was time he made a visit.

Tsuzuki sat hunched over in his chair, elbows on his knees and head on his hands. He was so tired but he also couldn't sleep. His mind was fuzzy, confused and dazed with the earlier events. He couldn't get it. He just couldn't get what had happened between him and Hisoka later. It made no sense, he couldn't fin out just what it was that he had done to anger Hisoka so much. There was so much anger in his eyes when he glared at him. Tsuzuki had only ever seen that look on occasion of when Muraki had come into the picture. Never had Hisoka given him that look, never gave it to anyone but Muraki. Why, why wasit that Hisoka hated him so much now. Why had he taken Keitaro from him, running out with the infant crying in his arms. He could still hear the infant crying and the loud, slamming of the door, the retreating steps. IT all played over and over in his mind again and again. There was just something so wrong with everything that had happened. Hisoka turning him away each night, his distance from any physical contact. There'd been a distant look in his eyes since they'd arrived back home. Now he'd ran out on him, disappearing without a word with Keitaro. So, now this is what it was like to be really alone.

It was then that a knock from the door drew Tsuzuki from his reverie. Drifting back to reality it took Tsuzuki's hazed mind a moment to realized just what had happened. "Hisoka...?" Just managing to push himself off the chair he made his way over to door. Opening the door was met by a fist knocking him down, throwing his body back to the floor. Tears stung his eyes as he turned to face the dark form of the shadow master draped in his shadows. "Ta..Tasumi..."

"How dare you? How dare you hurt Kurosaki that way!"

4100 words, more than usual but that's because it took extra, extra long to post. so sorry about that, school, work.. I'm so tired out. hope I haven't lost all my fans yet..


	7. Chapter 7

First, an apology for taking so damn long to get this out. I'm so sorry fans.. I hope not to leave you on a cliffy for too long.

"Tatsumi...?"

"How dare you treat Kurosaki that way! How dare you hurt him like that!" Tatsumi towered over the purple eyed shinigami, his fists raised. The shadows behind the man flickered, irritated and angered with the man and swirling about their master in a ready stance for attack.

"Tatsumi... what's I do? Where's Hisoka? What happened to him! Tatsumi! Please!" Tsuzuki turned onto his knees, kneeling before the man, begging for information on his green eyed lover and his son. Hurt? What had hurt Hisoka..? What was going on? He wanted to know that his little family was alright.

Tatsumi shook. His body was far to tensed. He couldn't keep himself from it anymore. His anger lashed out and his shadows swirled about him, reading his anger and striking out at the man that had caused it. The shadows, however, had not counted on the figure that ran past their master with a cry of "stop!" and the wail of the infant wrapped securely in that figures arms. With a cry Tatsumi called the shadows back but it was just a little too late. The shadows whipped against the back of the blonde boy as he et out a soft cry of pain, falling forward into Tsuzuki who he'd been protecting from the shadows. The child wailed from the screaming emotions around him. Tatsumi's heart stopped as he watched the boy stumble forward into the arms of the chocolate haired shinigami kneeling in front of him. "Kurosaki-Kun!"

" 'Soka!" Tsuzuki caught his green eyed angel and son. The boy had twisted in his fall to take the fall off his son that was clutched to his chest, tucked under Hisoka's large coat for added protection against the elements. He seemed for the most part fine, just dazed and pained for a minute. He was more worried for his son, though Tsuzuki had already seen to it that he was alright. he cradled the both of them in his arms somehow. Tears broke his eyes as he held them, he didn't want to let them go again. He didn't even care what had happened earlier, all he wanted was to just have his family back. " 'Soka!"

"He didn't do anything Tatsumi san!" Hisoka screamed out from where he now lay in Tsuzuki's arms. "please.. " He sobbed. "Please.. leave him alone.."

"Kurosaki.." The shadows from the hall that had gathered at Tatsumi's side in his anger disappeared entirely from their liquid like state, whipping and whirling about their master waiting for his order. He knelt down to see the boy, to touch his tear streaked face. He couldn't believe the boy had woken so early. He should have been knocked out for at least a little while longer. "Kurosaki, I'm so sorry... are you alright?" He reached out to touch the infant that was still wailing in his mothers arms..

"He didn't Tatsumi san... It's me. I bring trouble wherever I go. From the first time I became his partner till now. Muraki's always been on our tails and I've only helped him in breaking Tsuzuki more with each encounter... I've been murdered, raped and cursed over and over again and each time it seemed to be to draw Tsuzuki closer to his traps. I've brought nothing but misery..." Hisoka gasped as Tsuzuki twisted him, shaking him by his shoulders.

"How can you say that Hisoka! I'm alive for you, I stayed here for you and only you! You were my partner, my lover, my life's love! Misery! What misery could you bring by being a victim of that bastard. Stop it!" Tsuzuki shook his a bit more, firming his grip on the boys shoulders. The tears stung at his own eyes and he screamed out his anger at the boy. Hisoka had actually thought he'd made Tsuzuki's life miserable! How could he have the nerve to say or even think it! "Watari was there, and Tatsumi but it wasn't until you came into the fires for me that I choose life! How could you have that kind of nerve Hisoka! How could you...!" Finally breaking under everything that had happened, Tsuzuki leaned into the boys smaller frame, pressing the boys body into his, trying not to crush his son. The man wept into the boys shoulder as he held the smaller body to him, not sure if it was more for the boys sake or for his own.

Hisoka allowed himself to be held for long moments, unable to think, unable to react. he felt such anger coming off Tsuzuki aimed directly at him but it wasn't hatred. It was a hurt anger. It was a difference not many people understood when they thought of anger, but an empath could know all to well the feelings of hatred from others from the feeling of hurt anger caused by a breaking of trust, friendship or love of another. He, too, was taken over, then, by tears as he gave himself into it. His body was limp against Tsuzuki's as he gently let everything overtake him, all his emotions he'd kept there, all the misery for himself, for the people he thought he'd caused trouble to. All of it, just came pouring out. All the hatred he held towards himself and all the regrets for all the lies from the beginning of the pregnancy till now when he still held Keitaro's powers secret and all the problems that had been going on with him. He clutched the mans arm with his free hand, his arms trembling around Tsuzuki and his son. He was feeling lightheaded all of a sudden. A sound escaped his lips, gentle sigh, an escaping of air from his lungs as he fell into Tsuzuki's arms completely limp. Tsuzuki caught with, securing his arms around the infant in Hisoka's falling arms just in time to save their son from falling.

"Hisoka!"

"Kurosaki-kun!"

"Tatsumi, what's going on!" Tsuzuki gently pulled Keitaro from Hisoka's lifeless arms, not wanting the infant to drop to the floor and get hurt. He cradled in in one harm, Keitaro in his left and Hisoka in his right. He looked to Tatsumi pleadingly. Tatsumi could still be mad at him, Tatsumi could hate him for the rest of eternity for all he cared but he wanted to know what had happened to Hisoka. "Tatsumi.."

The secretary looked over the entire scene. Hisoka looked pale, far too pale. He then looked to Tsuzuki. His left shoulder was stained crimson, a trail falling down from where Hisoka had slid into his arms when falling. The blue eyed shinigami picked the boys right hand and just as he'd expected and feared, the bandages were soaked through with blood. Underneath the wound must not have closed, or maybe he'd reopened it when he'd run in, falling from the whole incident earlier. He'd passed out from blood loss. This was far too serious. Hisoka wasn't healing the way he should and it took far too little to cause a serious injury, far less than it should take for a shinigami. "Tsuzuki, call Watari quick."

"Tatsumi, what's going on!"

"Kurosaki-kun's lost too much blood, that's why he passed out. He's going to need stitches. Now call Watari."

Tsuzuki sat by the bedside. Watari had already stitched up Hisoka's hand and had told him that Hisoka would be alright but something just didn't sit well with him. He hadn't gotten an explanation from Tatsumi or Watari of why Hisoka had been at such a risk anyway. how could a small cut like that almost kill a shinigami? Weren't they immortal? Something was wrong with Hisoka and his heart and mind could not find a moments rest until he knew what it was His son squirmed and moaned as if to agree with him. He didn't know what it was but Keitaro always seemed to like Hisoka more. While he'd be screaming in Tsuzuki's arms he'd go right to a murmur in Hisoka's. It was a harsh mix of heart warming and heart wrenching emotions to see that his son was so close to Hisoka yet more distant from him. Beyond Keitaro's moans he could hear Tatsumi's and Watari's low, whispered conversation from behind him. Tatsumi had called the blonde shinigami off to talk to him after he'd finished with Hisoka, asking Tsuzuki to stay with the boy incase he should wake. He hadn't the heart at the moment to argue with them, somewhat glad that the job of watching over the boy had gone to him. Gently he shifted his son to relocate him to Hisoka's chest, his son and life partner belly to belly. The infant squirmed for a few minutes, kicking his chubby legs out and trying to move his head but then settled. Tsuzuki was amazed at how tiny he was, he was more or less the size of a premature infant. His little ear was pressed above Hisoka's heart and he visibly calmed, in a near sleep state as he listened to his mothers heartbeat. From beside the bed he lay his head next to Hisoka's, a hand on his sons back to make sure he didn't squirm right off his chest. He was happy like this, watching his family together.

"Watari please tell me you have some clue as to what's going on. "Tatsumi whispered, looking back over his shoulder at Tsuzuki. He was worried enough for all of them and Tsuzuki was still worried, no reason to cause anymore alarm to the amethyst eyed man until they had at least an idea of what was going on with Hisoka. There had to be a reasonable explanation to all of this that could be solved or reversed in some way. Surely a shinigami could get sick every once in a while, but for this to happen..

"Tatsumi, I really don't know. From how you describe it and from what I've seen, well I've never seen anything like this before. It's not even documented in any of the records from shinigami's present or past that have come to this part of the judgment beoru. I can't explain it... unless..." Watari rested his head in the fingers of his right hand, his elbow resting on his left arm that wrapped about his chest in thought. He murmured to himself as he thought, answering and turning down his own questions and theories. Tatsumi waited rather patiently until he deemed that Watari had had ample time to answer him with at least an idea of what was going on.

"Unless what?" He whispered harshly.

"Well.. you see.." Watari began to explain all that had happened with Hisoka and Keitaro. He knew Hisoka wouldn't like it but he told Tatsumi about his theories on Keitaro and how he though Hisoka's empathy had traveled down the generation and how he thought that this would effect Hisoka. While he was talking, however, His eyes traveled over Tatsumi's shoulder to the three figures on the other side of the room. Tsuzuki had lay Keitaro on Hisoka's chest and now had his face pressed close in against Hisoka's. While he hadn't stopped talking and explaining to Tatsumi his mind was thinking entirely differently from the words he was speaking. A twang of jealousy stabbed at his heart and twisted his insides. A festering hatred seeped into his mind, speaking to him. He was found asking himself mentally of why it hadn't been him in the place of either of those two. Why couldn't he have the child as his own. What made them so much more worthy of it then him. Thoughts whispered to him of taking the infant from the two and keeping it as his own

'NO!' He mentally berated himself. He mentally shook himself screaming at the evil thoughts that invaded his mind. He rushed through the explanation for Tatsumi stutter almost constantly. Watching the two lovers he could see the shifting in Hisoka's body, the signs that the boy was waking up again. He needed to get out before Hisoka woke up and he found himself doing an unspeakable act again. With a nervousness not known to him, Watari bid Tatsumi a farewell after the brief explanation. The secretary did try to make him stay and begged for a more descriptive explanation but the blonde shinigami insisted he had to leave. Tsuzuki too had lifted his head in curiosity to the mans sudden eagerness to leave. He'd never seen Watari pass up a chance for experimentation..

Only moments after Watari had left, Hisoka moaned and his eyes shuttered. He blinked his eyes open, moaning as the light attacked his eyes. "Where am I...?"

"Hisoka!" Tsuzuki held the boys hand. "Hisoka you're alright!"

"What happened...?" He looked down to the weight on his chest that made it harder to breath and he was normal to. His heart calmed after seeing his son lay across his chest. Though it was best for him, when Tsuzuki lifted him up, Hisoka was compelled to protest.

"You almost bled to death. You're not healing Kurosaki. Something's wrong. And we have an idea of what it could be." Tatsumi's voice was stern, and unemotional. It scared the two of them at how cold his words seemed to be. There was something in his voice that gave an ill omen to the whole situation. He leaned over, asking without words for permission to take Keitaro off Tsuzuki's hands. Tsuzuki was reluctant, but there had to be a reason. Tatsumi had never crossed them before.

Wanting to see, Hisoka pushed himself up to a better position. He could see the way Tatsumi purposely cradled Keitaro in just one arm, unfolding the blanket Tsuzuki had rewrapped him in to expose his naked form save for the diaper that covered him. He had no quarrels with it until he saw Tatsumi pull a small blade from one of his inner pockets. His heart leapt into his throat, a cry caught in his throat as he watched the man cut a vertical slice into the infants food after speaking no more than a "forgive me" to them.

Tsuzuki screamed out the mans name in pleading fright as he watched the slice made into the boys foot, the blade coming back stained and the infant wailing. His heart wrench as he jumped to his feet, snatching the infant from the mans arms and twisting his son away from him. His heart was pounding, his body shaking as he stepped back from the man that made no attempt to advance on them. He passed the boy to Hisoka in the bed, standing between his family and Tatsumi, glaring at the blue eyed secretary with all the courage in him, warning him to stay away.

"He'll be fine." Tatsumi dropped his eyes down. He hated having to do what he'd done but if he'd asked, or tried to explain to them, they wouldn't believe him. "He's probably already healed. Check for yourself." He gestured. "I won't do a thing.."

Hisoka, Tsuzuki leaned over his side, wearily checked the infant's left foot. Not a single mar was left on his pink flesh. Not a spec of blood was left to even tell where the blade had started or left on his flesh. "What's going on..? What have you done..?"

"Kurosaki.. This is why you're not well. Keitaro is, in a sense immortal having been born to two shinigami's, however.. his healing abilities he'd not gotten from Tsuzuki. He got them from you. When You gave birth to him, you gave him a part of you."

"What are you saying Tatsumi?" Tsuzuki demanded.

"You're healing abilities as a shinigami Hisoka, you gave them to your son when he was born. Your body now doesn't have much of it left in you. Basically, your body is almost as vulnerable as a mortals. In a strange way Hisoka, you are now human again.."

2653woeds... too short! sorry.. this ideas been here for so log in my head all alone... yet I could never find time to get it down on paper... everyone seemed a little ooc to me... sorry, trying to get back into the feel of things. I apologize big time to all my fans.. I'm SOOOOOO sorry! forgive me..


	8. Chapter 8

"Human..." His body turned numb and cold. He couldn't feel the fine convulsions that racked his body. The full impact of those words, human, being human again, had taken too full an impact. He couldn't remember how many times he'd wished he was mortal again, to feel and e as he was when he was alive. How many times had he wished to be alive again and to be able to grow up, even just a little bit more so he could catch up to Tsuzuki just a little bit. Now that he was hearing it, that he was like a mortal all over again.. He didn't want it. He'd spent too much time as a shinigami, he'd gotten too use to the feeling now. He was too frail and weak in his mortal life, and now, under all the new situations he'd be thrown into, there's no way a human body would be able to survive what he needed to survive.  
"Tatsumi, are you sure about this? What do you mean he's sick..?" Tsuzuki softened his glare at the man to a determined stare and his voice lowered in it's tone as well. He still however, stood firm between him and his family. He'd still hurt his son for reasons that were still unknown to him.  
"Tsuzuki, he's been sick for a while now. I don't know if you've noticed. There's still a scar where Watari pulled Keitaro out. From what we gather, he's still dead, he's still a shinigami in that he won't die and won't age, but now..." He looked to Hisoka. The boys face was so pale, so empty that it scared him. "Basically..., his body is... It can hold up better than a mortals, but nothing near what a shinigami should be able to face..."  
"How do you know this, what proof do you have?" Tsuzuki's face became stern again. He didn't believe it, he didn't want to believe it. Hisoka had been sick before, maybe he was just sick again. He needed proof of all this. Why would his powers suddenly transfer?  
Tatsumi had easily picked up the tone in Tsuzuki's voice, the accusation and the disbelief. He could hardly blame Tsuzuki, however he did not feel much in the mood to be questioned in the accusing manner that Tsuzuki was providing. "The proof is written on his body Tsuzuki!" He yelled, pointing to Hisoka still gaping on the bed. "Check him yourself if you want, you saw the wound on his palm, there's a scar on his stomach from the operation! I saw it for myself just this evening when Kurosaki came running over!" He returned the mans stern eyes with just as much stubbornness.  
"It's real... isn't it?" Hisoka asked meekly from the bed, drawing the attention from both men. "Everything that's happened..." He pulled Keitaro closer into his chest, as if he was protecting the infant from being snatched from him by some unseen force. "He told me... and I didn't want to believe it, but I knew then that something was wrong. I knew it..."  
"Hisoka, what's going on? What the hell are you talking about? WHO told you WHAT?"  
Hisoka looked straight up into Tsuzuki's eyes. He looked like a cornered, wounded animal. His eye were glistening with fear. He reminded Tsuzuki of a child facing their parent after doing something wrong. It was then that the thought came rushing back into his mind at just how young Hisoka really was. He forgets sometimes, with Hisoka's attitude and his constant, superior and mature act that Hisoka was really still just a kid and sometimes, he just needed to be one.  
"Keitaro's an empath just like me... There's a certain bond that we share with out birth mother...I.. I.. that's why..." His breathing began to become heavy, panting as his tears began. Tsuzuki tried to hush him and tried to make him calm by running his hands over hair but he wouldn't let him do it. He wouldn't stop this time, no more lies. "I had one with my mother, that's why she feared me so much.. I could read her thoughts... her mind, so much easier.. clearer.. than anyone else's... As... an e-empath" Here he began to hiccup between his stuttering sentences. " There's a certain... bond.. between you and the one you'd... come from. I... f-feel Keitaro and he feels... me..." He looked franticly from one man to the other, waiting for one or both of them to yell or hit him for lying the whole time, keeping secrets again and making trouble, but their faces were completely stunned. "Parts of me.. travel to him.. that must be how..." He stopped. He couldn't bring himself to keep going anymore. He wanted to, he wanted to spill his guts out and make the lies go away.. but he couldn't. He stared straight into Tsuzuki's eyes, his head tilted up from where he was bent over, tears gathering and stinging his eyes anew as they leaked gingerly down his pale cheeks. "Forgive me..." passed his quivering lips as he watched Tsuzuki.  
Tsuzuki stared for long moments, watching the salty tears leak down his cheeks leaving trails of wetness in their wake. Watching his shaky, pink lips form those words was too much. He lunged forward, his arms tight around the boys neck in a fierce hug. He wanted to press his entire body to Hisoka's but Keitaro kept him at a safe distance so as not to squish him. "Forgive you? For what? For being born the way you were? For giving birth to our son? What do you want to be forgiven for Hisoka? I don't see it!" He put his hand to the back of the blonde head, cradling every part of the boy in his arms as he held his crying form closer and closer to him. When Tsuzuki had gotten just a little bit too close to his mother for Keitaro's liking he let the man know by kicking and punching out at his father with angered cry. Both men, though they'd been crying, could feel the baby moving angrily to the point that it reminded the older man of the babes mother. The two tried to hide it but eventually began to laugh as he became more and more angry. Their chuckles confused the man that still watched them, concerned.

Tatsumi stared in concern. He was worried the two had lost their mind. He watched them closely for a while, waiting to see if one would snap. He didn't get why they could laugh when they were both just crying so hard. He could still see tears in Kurosaki's eyes as he stared at Tsuzuki!

Hisoka pulled away, his chest was heavy with heavy breaths of laughter and tears combined. He was sure to meet the amethyst eyes of his partner, staring deeply into them for reassurance of some kind. Tsuzuki stared right back at him, not sure of how else to proceed. He didn't know how to tell Hisoka that it would be alright, that he'd be safe with him and that everything would be fine. So he held him. He held him as tight as he could and didn't let go. That's all he could do.

I know it's short but.. I wanted to post it and it's just kindda a fluffy… (fluffy.. well my fluff anyway… I'm angst here people….) chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

Watari sat at his appointed chair with his name on it. He had both hands clasped around his tea mug, from which he was watching the steam rise. He'd been called in with Tsuzuki, Tatsumi and even Hisoka and Keitaro had managed to make it into Konoe's office. Apparently as the "doctor" of the judgment department he was involved. Their seats had been rearranged a bit. Hisoka was of course sat by Tsuzuki now. Every time he would look up he'd find the boy holding Keitaro, who was bundled in thick blankets. tight and watching the man with a distrustful eye. He often shifted the baby further from him. Sometimes he seemed to be almost hiding behind Hisoka.

He didn't know why but Seeing Hisoka's face angered him. Seeing him there with the baby wrapped protectively in his arms hiding behind Tsuzuki just boiled his blood. Why should Hisoka have someone when no one else did? Why should he have Tsuzuki there to comfort him every night? Why shouldn't he have the same thing! He was just a kid! A lousy ,snot nosed brat! He didn't deserve Tsuzuki! His hands had clenched with such force that they'd begun to crack the cup in his hands, it's not drawn much attention as it had not yet shattered but was very much near it. His mind was reeling down a dark alley. One of evil where he could hear the boys pitiful wails and screams of pain as he could feel the blood gush over his hands, feel the splash of the blood squirting with a weakening pulse wash over his face. If he were gone, Tsuzuki would be free, he'd be vulnerable.

"In short, Kurosaki has changed dramatically. So dramatically in fact... we don't know about his return to the duty of being a shinigami. Due to the nature and dangers this job..." Tatsumi's eyes were shadowed by his hand and his glances that glared angrily in the light. He seemed to have described a condition with the kid that he'd not calculated. It'd not enter his mind.

"If that's so... Well the only reason why shinigami are really allowed to wander the world is because of their duty as shinigami so," Watari pointed out looking up with sharp, cool eyes. "What would happen to him?" A spark of glee went up in Watari's darkened heart. He may not even have to get rid of the boy himself. If Hisoka could not perform his duty as a Shinigami, the higher forced just might do it for him.

"I've checked with that already. They won't take him from Tsuzuki or Keitaro. He's going to be allowed to stay here and live with Tsuzuki as if he were a shinigami. In a round about way, we're responsible for what has happened after all." Konoe answered. It was slight and almost unnoticeable, but Watari's eyes narrowed angrily. "However, this meeting was more or less just procedure. It's official now, Kurosaki, that you are not expected to return." Konoe made eye contact with the boy, or at least he did when the boy had finally turned to him from watching Watari after realizing that Konoe was directing his words towards him.

"We can't actually afford much, but you will be receiving a small payment in order to make a living on. Affording three people on Tsuzuki's check alone can't possibly be reality." Chimed in Tatsumi. "Of course, after all is said and done, you're still expected to pay back your debts Tsuzuki."

Tsuzuki sunk down under the table, whimpering to himself. "So mean Tatsumi. Mean!" Tears ran down his face.

"However, that does leave us with a problem of who will take over as Tsuzuki's partner." Konoe said in the mist of the whimpering and scolding that Tsuzuki was receiving from Tatsumi to make it stop. Tsuzuki poked his head up from under the table. Hisoka, too, looked up and over. Keitaro kicked out and gave a soft, short cry. Tsuzuki get a new partner...? His heart dropped, falling into the bottom of hi stomach.

"I don't want a new partner! I only want Hisoka!" Tsuzuki whined.

"Too bad" Said Konoe. "You know the rules. Guardians work in pairs and you just lost your partner." Konoe looked up over his folded hands at the scene. The two had reacted just as he had expected them to. It was somewhat cute how Hisoka seemed jealous over Tsuzuki's new partner before he'd ever seen him and the way Tsuzuki was so dedicated to him that he thought himself incapable of even working with another. This was going to be hard to get through without at least one of them hating him. "For now.. until we find you a full time partner we could assign you a temp. For now, Watari will do."

Tsuzuki had large innocent eyes as he looked over to the blonde. He tilted his head. He'd worked with the man before, and it could be a while till he'd have a new partner now, though he didn't really want one in the first place. It wouldn't really matter. Hisoka though, gave a steely glare, his lips beginning to curl back into a snarl. His chest tightened into a knot and he fingers clenched the fabric of Keitaro's blanket

Watari gave a grin. Perfect. He could easily gained more information that he could use to help himself later. As his partner he'd have easy access to him and every move he'd make, just as well information to Hisoka's whereabouts and condition at any given moment. Tsuzuki was so easy to milk information from. With the popper information, he could rid himself of the boy and get away with it by framing the doctor. It wouldn't seem suspicious, with all that the doctor had put them through, especially as of late. He gave an especially bright grin to the boy who was glaring at him, after which he could have sworn he heard the boy growl like some animal.

When the meeting was officially closed and each person was allowed to leave from their spot and get back to their post Hisoka was all to anxious to give Keitaro to Tsuzuki. He feigned that everything was fine, but Tsuzuki could tell something was wrong with him. Keitaro was far to fussy and it wasn't all due to him being hungry or wet, which he didn't think he was anyway. "Hisoka?" The boy walked off, not answering him, straight to Watari. That's it! He was worried about him getting a new partner. It was cute. So he turned to talk to the other. They were all interested in seeing Keitaro anyway.

Watari glared. The kid was working his way over to him. "What do you want?" He asked when the boy had stopped in front of him, his fist clenched and emerald orbs narrowed dangerously.

"Keep your hands off him. Don't mess with him, or so help me I'll-!"

"You'll what?" Watari asked without feeling. "I'm his new partner. We have jobs to do. It's a shame you're got yourself into this jam, kid, but you have. You're no longer a guardian of death and now Tsuzuki's all alone. So how about now, you stop messing with him." He stood, ready to walk off.

"Watari!" The boy grabbed his wrist, wrenching his arm back the way he was leaving. "Don't you do anything to him or I'll take you out myself!" He had grabbed the man without a thought, acting on just his furry and courage but it was quickly cooled when he looked to the older shinigami's face.

"Don't you dare to touch me again brat!" Watari jerked himself free from Hisoka's grasp and walked off.

Hisoka's heart sank down to it's lowest. He couldn't protect Tsuzuki again. He was just as vulnerable, just as dependant on him as he was from the beginning. And now... he would always be that way, for the rest of eternity.

"Hisoka. You alright?" Hisoka slowly came back from his daze. Tsuzuki was by his side, Keitaro in his arms. "Hisoka..?"

Hisoka nodded his head, taking Keitaro from Tsuzuki. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Do you want me to walk you home?"

"No, You've got things to do and I'll be fine." Hisoka took one last look to Watari's direction. "Fine."

Later that evening Tsuzuki had pulled on his jacket, about to leave the office, even though there was a load of paper work on his desk. "I'm so sorry Watari! But I promised Hisoka I'd do a few things before I came home today and if I don't get them done he'll have my head."

"No problem. Hey, why don't we work on these over at your place? I could head over there with everything while you run your errands, I'll work on what I can and I'll be there by the time you."

"Sounds great. Oh, but Hisoka might be in the shower or already asleep. He's a early to bed person, ya know." He chuckled. "Here, take my spare key, just in case." Tsuzuki pulled the key from his ring and dropped it into Watari's waiting hand. "I'll see ya there."

When Tsuzuki was gone and the room was empty of everyone he let himself let out a soft chuckle. He'd planned to wait but with the boys earlier outburst, he could not wait any longer. He needed to know his place, and he was going to show it to him.

OK. Sorry is too light a word to use for the extremely long wait to an update for my fans, but I am extremely sorry, My brain crashed, I think there were some major viruses in there and it took a long while to get rid of them. ok, but I know now what I'm doing again, the next few chapters will probably be short, but I hope to have more of them posted quickly.


	10. Chapter 10

Tsuzuki whistled a tune to himself as he strolled down the hallway. He was hoping Watari had finished most of the paperwork on his own, he even walked slower in hopes that if he took longer, it would actually be that much less paper work he'd have to do. Putting the key into the lock he found it odd that the door, with the slightest movement, just pushed open. Usually Hisoka keeps it tightly shut and locked, especially as of late. It must have been a bit of paranoia due to everything that's happened but he didn't mind. However, even if Watari was there, he still didn't think Hisoka would just leave the door open like this. He took a cautionary step inside. It was dark; all the lights were turned out. Hisoka didn't like the dark. His heart began to race a bit faster. "Hisoka..?" There came no answer form the darkness save for an odor that he found so familiar. Far too familiar. "Hisoka!" He called with more urgency, flipping the light switch on he wall beside him.

With the light of the bulb there came an illumination of a red trail painted thickly on the floor out ahead of him. The smell of copper wafted up from the carpeted floor. Tsuzuki gasped, his hand covering his mouth as his stomach reeled, trying desperately to release it's contents against Tsuzuki's mental will. Then it all came rushing back to his mind. "Hisoka!" His feet flew across the blood stained carpet faster than he's ever gone before, taking him without conscious thought, along the trail and back to the very bedroom he shared with his beloved Hisoka. Along the way there were tables knocked over and glass scatter among the splashes of blood. With each once of blood that he saw his heart clenched tighter and tighter. "Hisoka!" The door was flung open before he got there, the pale light from the moon outside shone threw the blinds in thin lines along the floor, illuminating the body sprawled out across the floor, face down next to a stained basinet An empty basinet.

Tsuzuki fell to his knees at Hisoka's side. Turning the boy over he coated himself in the blood still dripping from the boys numerous wounds. There were several scattered across his body that were visible through his well-torn clothes. His body was almost stripped completely as if some pervert had tried taking advantage of him. His heart sank again to imagine if that had happened to the boy again but it would appear that it hadn't due to the lack of evidence of such activities. Still, his eyes were closed, his body limp and still bleeding. There were shallow wounds all over but the two adorning his wrist scared him the most. He hadn't even begun to heal and it didn't seem the attack was all that recent, if he didn't do something soon, the boy would bleed to death. "Hang on Hisoka! Please, Hisoka! Hold on!"

"Tsuzuki?" The man startled. He turned back when he felt the secretarys hand on his shoulder. He'd been lost in the recap of the scene that had replayed it self in his mind since he got Hisoka to the infirmary. He still had the boys hand clasped tightly in his own. In the back of his mind he could hear the beep and mechanical noise of the machine that they'd almost never used. Here, with everyone being immortal, it seemed rare and highly unlikely that they would need life saving equipment like this. What had made it worse was that Watari had apparently disappeared as well; leaving some guy that Tsuzuki had never seen before to tend to Hisoka's medical needs. The boy had, thus far, not woken from his state of unconsciousness, nor shown any sign that he would tell what was going on around him, though Tsuzuki spoke to him softly everyone in a while, often without realizing it. "Are you alright?"

"Have you found Keitaro?" Was all that he could mange to speak with a raspy, strained voice from hours of not talking. After searching the entire house, the baby had not shown up nor had they found a clue to where he could have be taken too. He didn't want to say anything else, he didn't want to know anything else until his son was found and Hisoka had come too.

"No." Was all the man said for a long while. He kept his hand reassuringly on Tsuzuki's shoulder but the man paid it no heed as he turned back to Hisoka. He had so many wires and tubes all hooked up to him, IVs and heart monitors. He looked so much frailer than Tsuzuki had ever seen him, so young and pale. Tsuzuki could feel as the man sat in the chair by his side, watching the boy just as intently as he himself had. "We've yet to find Watari as well. He's seems to have just disappeared. Nothing seems to have been wrong in his apartment so it doesn't seem that he was abducted from his own place if that's in fact what has happened to him. Don't worry Tsuzuki, if he was taken, I know he wouldn't let anything happen to Keitaro."

It was then that there came a tightening in his chest. Tsuzuki could feel something strange working in the pit of his stomach and wrenching at his heart. He knew that feeling, it was when he knew something was wrong but had a tough time in determining it. Then it came back to him. Just a day or so ago, when Hisoka had ran to Tatsumi. He'd had that fight with Hisoka. He'd upset the boy, not really ever finding out how or why. He reviewed the conversation in his head,

'Well then why don't we just get you checked out by Watari?'

'NO!'

He'd not wanted to see Watari then. Come to think of it, he'd been acting funny earlier today as well. He remembered now Hisoka watching the blonde haired man closely through the duration of the meeting. After it's been announced that Watari was going to be his new temporary partner, the boy did seem a bit more on edge than he'd thought normal. He'd thought that he was jealous, cautious beyond reason in worry that someone would take him from him. He should have seen it by the way Hisoka looked with anger at him, the way he'd grabbed him, and now that he could understand it, the fear he's seen when Watari looked back at him. But now

"Unless it was him who took him." Tsuzuki looked up from where he'd been holding Hisoka's hand to his face with a numb expression, his hear clenched painfully tight.

"Tsuzuki?" The secretary asked.

"Hisoka had not wanted to see him when I asked him to get checked out. I thought he might have been sick or fatigued after Keitaro's birth but he flipped out, that's where the whole fight from the other day had begun. Today, he went over to him after he found out that he was my partner. He's been avoiding him. Something's wrong with Watari! And Hisoka knew it." He turned back to the boy lying so fragile on the bed. "So Watari tried to take him out. And I wasn't there." Tears blurred and burned his vision as he stared at the boy. "I stayed out longer than I should have to get outta work and I wasn't there when he needed me because of that. I wasn't there when he needed me and now Keitaro's gone and Hisoka's" A sob escaped him. "God what have I done" He fell into the spare mattress at Hisoka's side, sobbing into the white sheets.

"You haven't done anything wrong, Tsuzuki! There was no way you would have known."

"I didn't come home, I left him there." Tatsumi looked from Hisoka on the bed to Tsuzuki, who was currently weeping on the white sheets, staining them with his tears. As he watched the scene a sensation he rarely allowed himself to truly give into was taking over. His hand slipped from off the mans shoulder and balled into a fist at his side. "Get a hold of yourself Tsuzuki! Weeping like a child is certainly not going to help Hisoka or Keitaro right now, nor is self pity! Get it together man! For your family." The man had started with a booming, angered voice, but had ended the last part with a softer tone, trying to comfort the man after giving him a swift shove in the right direction. "If Watari is somehow involved in all this, then we will find him, but that can't happen until you get up and start helping me look."

Tsuzuki looked up to the secretary then back to his life partner. The steady beeping of the heart monitor filled the back of his mind. His tears had stopped and he wiped away what remained of them from his face with the back of his sleeve and sniffled back any attempts that they made to come back. Squeezing the boys hand once more, leaning down to kiss his hand Tsuzuki Made a quiet vow to himself and the boy. "I'll get him back Hisoka. I'll get him back." Fallowed by Tatsumi, he left the room, allowing the man to flick the light off, leaving the door slightly ajar, allowing the light from the hall to fall across the eternal youths face.

The light from the hall was golden, yellowing anything they touched in the darkened room but the orbs of emerald green that had flicked to awareness.

, hey, only two days later. To admit it, I wasn't that happy with the last one, but I'm kind of happy with this one. Hopefully I haven't lost too many people on this. And the whole situation with Watari WILL be explained... it's all part of the master plan! Yes! The master plan! Mwahahahaha. ( Watari fans don't kill me until you see the end... then hopefully you won't want to kill me.


	11. Chapter 11

Tsuzuki sat in the chair next to Tatsumi as he sat in front of the computer, staring blankly at the flashing cursor. Neither had even a clue as to where to start. The ticking of the clock just made Tsuzuki's heart want to scream with every sound. The situation was desperate, there wasn't time to be staring like this. He didn't know what was happening to his son or even where he could be, if he was even alive anymore. He slammed his fists down on the desk, startling the blue eyed secretary from his thoughts and causing him to jump in his chair. "Where is he!" He growled between clenched teeth.

"Was there anything that he might have told you that would give us a hint Tsuzuki san? Why would he take Keitaro like this? Things aren't making sense." The secretary sighed, looking back to the computer with a thought in his head. Watari's computer... He began to type and click away, searching through all the files on the computer.

"What are you doing?" Tsuzuki asked when he finally looked up. The clicking of the keyboard was getting on his nerves which were stretched and worn far too thin already.

"Looking for clues. We have nothing else to go on. Hopefully his files or documents will give us something to work with since there's apparently nothing else we can do." Tatsumi put his full attention to opening, decoding and unlocking all the files that were on Watari's computer. "Perhaps, if he kept any personal records we could find out something about his behavior lately that would give us some insight as to where he could be heading with Keitaro or at least what he would want the boy for." Tsuzuki, with a desperate hoping turned, too, to the computer.

The room fell silent save for the click clack of the keyboard for a long time. Both pair of ears had so become accustomed to the quiet that when a red alarm that came blaring from the wall behind the pair had all but made the two hearts stop beating in an attack. An alarm was triggered from the infirmary causing the loud ringing that now made their ears buzz.

"Hisoka!" Was all Tsuzuki shouted as he bolted with full speed from the room, knowing the chair he'd been sitting on to the ground. Tatsumi called out from behind him, trying his best to keep up with the purpled eyed shinigami but something gave the man an unnatural speed even for the undead. He called his name and pleaded with him to wait for him but the man slowed not a step for him.

Upon reaching the room they found the reason for the alarm. The heart monitor was signaling to them a flat line, due to an empty bed where Hisoka once lay .The covers were thrown back, the wire hanging from the machine, attached to nothing. Everything appeared to be in it's place and there was certainly no sign of any struggle and no alarm of any intruders. "Hisoka..."

Unstable steps echoed through the halls as their master stumbled along, right hand pressed to the wall in an attempt to stay upright. The small body slumped with each step, each painful step that was forced from his weakened body. Sweat dripped form his face and matted his blonde hair that clung uncomfortably to his forehead and stung his eyes when they'd poke into them. He could hear the faint bellow of the alarm as he walked away and the approaching footsteps of a pair of men. He felt the sinking of his heart and the voice in his mind when his partner called his name softly. By this time he'd reached the doors and exited through them, stepping his bare feet onto the grass as a great wind blew. The petals of the sakura were blown clean off their branches by the wind and sent into a whirlwind about him as he took a look back to the ministry. "Forgive me..." A single tear slid from his face and flew into the air as he turned with forced and determination away from the ministry.

A bolt of electricity ran up Tsuzuki's spine that made him arch back and suck in air through his teeth as he clenched his eyes tight. From his tail bone to the meeting of his pain there was a setting of sparks and flames sent to travel and hop along each of his nerves, then being driven straight to the center of his mind where the image of his partner flashed before his minds eye. His heart sank and fell from his chest as his body relaxed from it's stiff position. His leg suddenly turned to jell-o beneath him he fell to his knees as he came out of what almost felt to be a trance. He slumped over, a cold sweat pouring from his face, his skin alive with goosebumps.

"Tsuzuki san!" Tatsumi called as he came by the man, placing his hands on the mans shoulders.

"He's going." This earned a questioning looked from the blue eyed man. "He's going to find Keitaro and Watari on his own. He's leaving... He knows where they are..."

Tatsumi stared at the man for a long moment. That's what it was! The boy had a connection to his son, one stronger than any normal human woman would have with their child. He could read into the infants mind as much, if not better than he could anyone else. He must be able to track down the child using such an ability, and it seemed he would have the same type of link with Tsuzuki. "Where Tsuzuki? Where is he heading?" He hated sounding so stern, applying as much pressure as he did to the mans shoulder, forcing him to speak like this, but if they were to loose the boy now, they may never be able to find where Watari had gone with the child, and Hisoka was in no shape to be looking for him. If something really was wrong with Watari, If Hisoka was forced into conflict with him...

"He won't tell me... He.. he closed the connection." By this point Tsuzuki had wrapped his own arms around himself, curled nearly fully into a fetal ball. "He doesn't want us to know..."


	12. Chapter 12

There were many stares coming from all the people that Hisoka had crossed from the night before and all the day so far that he'd been traveling. Luckily all of them seemed to be about his appearance, weak, barefoot and dressed in only a pair of night clothes through the whole day as he made his way along the streets. Luckily he'd not crossed anyone that stared at him in shock of the fact he was alive, now being in the place of his birth. It seems that he was completely forgotten by anybody that he'd actually been able to see during his living life, though he had to admit that he had forgotten anybody he'd seen outside his cell as a child, save for Muraki. He was walking along the path of a park. The evening was setting in, the sun was setting and few people remained in the park, though some mothers were still lingering with their children. Every child he saw in their mothers arms stabbed and wrenched at his heart. Fortunately for him though, the mothers rushed away with their boys and girls in tow upon seeing him, telling their pointing children not to look at him .All the better for them to go before it got dark.

He found a large sakura tree with branches thick and tangled as they stretched to the sky. There he found a seat under it's boughs and settled against it's trunk, allowing the rough bark to scratch at his back as it pleaded. Once settled, after having shifted in pain more than once, he opened his mind, his head leaned weakly back against the bark of the tree, hairs being pulled and plucked by the bark and splinters of wood. The sun was setting and he could feel the warmth of it's light dying against his skin as the cool crisp bite of the night air over took the sky. The night seemed blue in tint as the sun died and the moon night took it's place, moon clouded by the black wisps of night. Darkness pulled at the corners of his eyes, drawing his eyes in like a shade. His mind fogged though he try to keep his eyes open it felt as if a brick were tied to each one, pulling it down. With out realizing it he'd slipped into the world of dreamless sleep.

There came a cold breeze that sent tendrils of ice across his skin, then there came a warming on his cheek as a light pressure came to his nerves. His eyes flickered open, pasted together by sleep and heavy with the desire for more. A red night awaited his vision as he opened to a red moon and the white that so magnified it to the point it was blinding him with red.

"Muraki!" He ground out between clenched teeth as he pushed himself up, or rather attempted to push himself up. More strength was in his arms than his legs as he used both in an attempt to push himself away from the bark of the tree but they too gave out when he was only half way up, causing him to fall back against the tree with a short cry that he tried to muffle. He glared up at the man, cursing his own weakness.

"Don't seem so surprised kid, you were the one calling me, or was I mistaken when I heard you calling my name so desperately?" The doctor leaned forward after kneeling to be more at the boys level. He took the young shinigami's cheek into his pale hand made red with the light of the moon.

"What have you done with him! Where is Keitaro!" His arms were so numb and heavy he could not get them to move, could not even get them to lift enough to push away the doctors hand. His whole body felt the same, dead as lead.

"Ah, my new little child, my perfect little doll." The doctor delighted in the glare he received from the young shinigami. "He's beautiful, powerful and will be completely obedient, unlike my previous toys." The mad doctor took a handful of hair from the boy, pulling his head back with it. "He will be perfect"

Tears began to sting at the corners of his eyes. "Where..?" He tried, he definitely tried his hardest, but his voice came out strangled and sobbing.

A growl escaped the mans lips and his head being flung from the mans grip and hitting the back of the tree was his answer. With a signaling of his hand some one came from behind the tree, lifting his limp body up and holding him almost possessively, then a long strand of blonde hair fell over his shoulder. "Wa...tari..." His voice shook with his body as he felt those hands that clutched to him.

"Take him, I want him to see this, to see my rebirth."  
He clenched his eyes shut tight. He could feel the white around him as he shifted between worlds, between time and space, bending to Muraki's will. He found himself, after daring to open his eyes, once more in one of Muraki's hidden labs. From the sound of the pipe and just the very feel of the place he could tell it must have been hidden under a building or carved into the earth itself. Then from the in front of him, he could hear a mewling, a soft whimpering cry.

"Keitaro!" Hisoka tried to jolt forward , forgetting that Watari was holding him. "Let go of ME!" He screeched as he began to wriggle and pry at the hands wrapped about him. For the first time he turned to look the man in the face and was met with blank eyes, dead eyes.. "Wa.. what have you done to him...?" He turned limp once more as the blonde haired mans arms. his struggles allowed them to be moved quicker to a corner of the room, where as, sat in the middle up on a high, almost pedestal like counter top was his son, wriggling and squirming as Muraki continued on to him, picking him up when he reached him.

"I've done nothing really. I've only taken what was already in him and brought it to the surface. All his hate, all his jealousy. Did you not see the way he watched you, the way he fawned over you just the same as Tsuzuki. You took him from him, same as you have from me, my dear Tsuzuki san." The doctor seemed to be off in memory as he rocked the fussy baby in his arms, patting his back gently. "He turned his attention to you then, secretly watching you, wanting you. Then you have a child with my dear Tsuzuki san, breaking and shattering any of his hope at keeping you to himself. Now he must settled for what he's got."

The boys shirt was ripped open, buttons popping and flying across the room. A shriek passed his lips before he could stop it. the scientists hand roamed his open chest. One hand wrapped delicately around the base of the boys pale throat while the other worked at his chest. His palm ran over his chest, his fingers were soon to find his nipples, plucking and picking at them regardless of Hisoka's reaction of distress. He worked the small nubs to hardness, flicking, picking and running over them till an involuntary moan escaped his lips. Watari pushed the boy forward, tripping up his feet. The boy landed on his belly, Watari pressed against his back. He could feel a hardness against his lower back that made him want to scream but his eyes fell on Muraki holding his son so naturally in his arms, besides, Watari had apparently stopped.

"Why?.. What do you need my son for... Why!" He pleaded, trying to pull himself out  
from under Watari.

"I will make him mine. I know you feel it boy, the little piece of me running through your veins. that night, so long ago, I put myself into you, in many ways. Do you not see the red moon outside boy, feet it running along your skin in liquid fire through your veins? That curse I put you under took your very life from you. I can now do the same to my son. I will merge with him, making him part of me, making him mine, not only will I feed from his power but he will from mine. I shall become immortal, as powerful if not more so than any shinigami. He will become me, the way you feel me in you, he shall feel me in him, he will be me. He's my son, my successor."

"No!" Hisoka gave a strong attack against Watari, but failed. His action only caused the possessed man to take more action, pressing himself down harder against the boy. The doctor chuckled to himself as he turned, walking to the center of the room with the infant. "NO!" Watari was once again roaming his skin, kissing, feeling and exposing as much as he could regardless of if he had to rip, or tear his clothes. "Tsuzuki!" He called softly as he pressed his face to the cold ground.

"Soon my child, soon." Muraki's whispered to the blonde infant as he lay him back on the cushioned pedestal. "We will be one."


	13. Chapter 13

The earth had fallen silent and the sky had grown dark. Any creature that dared to move in the dark did so in terror and need and for no other purpose. The spirits of the winds had even returned from wence they came. The crickets silence their chirps and not even the sounds of human activities, cars, trains or just the commotion of families within their dwellings dared to break the silence and darkness that the earth had made itself into. Even the sun of the day had seemed dimmer, the stars of the night refusing to shine. The warmth was gone from the planets, dropping drastically, even catching the attention of the tv news broadcasters as it was called a "freak incident" among the mortals of the planets. Yet those that were in tune to the world of the supernatural, those that were dead or near death, those that could see, saw it for what it was.

The souls that had been never been put to rest, those of mortals from all locations on the planet, those lingering as guardians, those that were violent, murderers and their victims long since looking for revenge, those that were of children and mothers, far too innocent to know the fact that they had left the earth, those of widows lost in an eternal search, looking for their lovers that had died hundreds of years ago and would never return had gathered. Their were those of the earth, demons and creatures of the other worlds that could no longer take physical form, ancient beings that had been forgotten and made into fairytales of legends, only seen now in the ancient scrolls and plays of movies and tales made by those that found them fictional, looking for tales to scare their children into obedience. All souls had gathered in pockets, taking with them the energy of their region, the sun, warmth and light of their origin and causing chill spots, lowering the temperatures to record lows. The entire world had been thrown into an approaching second ice age. Yet the mortals had not seen

There were six "pockets" for lack of a better word. These pockets had been points in which these spirits had flocked to, circular points forming the shape of a 5 point pentagon, a single, yet largest pocket placed directly in the center, Kanagawa. The image of the glowing orbs, all surrounding areas of Kanagawa that Tatsumi had brought to the screen while looking for clues and leads to Hisoka's where about, spirits circling the perimeter, making a circle with a dimmer glow was still burned into Tsuzuki's mind as he walked through the city. He'd been out since he was able to sneak past Tatsumi, searching Kanagawa for Hisoka, Keitaro, Watari or Muraki. He'd seen that symbol that star before; he'd never forget it, never. The evil doctor had used it many times before, summoning to him the forced of the dark that would do his bidding. The center would bring him Muraki, with Muraki would come Hisoka, Keitaro and the head of the mad scientist that he had once dared to call friend. Pulling the trench coat more closely about himself he pressed on into the cold, empty and dark lonely night.

Blood dripped down to the floor to mix with the tears that stung his eyes and slipped from his thick lashes, sliding gently down his youthful cheeks. The wounds that had been given to him from days ago had long since been reopened, his bandages had been ripped and those that were still barely clinging to his body were soaked through with blood. His world was blurring, his head spinning. He would not hold much longer. He'd been loosing so much blood, he felt faint, his vision blurred, he would die here, raveged by a man he had long since learned to trust, someone he'd called friend, one he had come to love as family, having none of his own, all the while watching his son being killed in front of him. He would die, miserable, alone and a failure to his friends, to his son and to Tsuzuki.

His heart fell deep in his chest, fallen by grief. He lay with his head on the cold concrete, he could hear, every so often the drip drip of his blood and tears as they fell to the small puddle forming their under his head, the wound having opened on his forehead, running under his hair line, being agitated from where it had only begun to heal from earlier. He could hear his breath, hear Watari's breath blowing against his ear as the scientist worked at stripping him, having quite a hard time in his state, his body stiff yet forceful and strengthened beyond the limits of even the shinigami. Then came a wailing, a ghastly sound from all about him and a coldness ran up his spine, an unnatural chill, his senses were assaulted from all sides with images of horror, violence and death. There were bodies cut and gutted, sacrificed and left as testament to evils that were forbidden to even be spoken aloud. He found himself wracked with a new sense of pain, pain so horrible his body was sent into convulsions his breath catching in his throat and not allowing the precious air that he so desperately needed to enter his lungs. From in the distance he could hear his son scream and cry out in the same pain, feel his body twist and kick as his was doing now. The room was now filled with the same chill that had come by him, so that as his body once more allowed him to breath, once he could see through eyes that were still blurred, unfocused and pained, there was his breath turned to smoke that was quickly wisped over to Muraki. The room was aglow, filled with glowing orbs and wisps of energy that gathered all heat, all exertion, feeding from them. Spirits.

Abandoning the screaming child safely placed upon the large pedestal in the center of the room Muraki turned, striding over to the mother of said child with surprising calmness. "You see them then?" He asked, or rather said to himself. He was no expecting the boy to answer him; it was more to log it into his own mind. "The spirits that can not find peace, ones that will never rest and wander the earth eternally, feeding from the fear and energy of the living. These are the souls of murderers, rapists, their victims, caught in a hell they can not escape from, sacrifices, cut limb from limb and unable to except that they are dead, the damned that had taken their own lives in grief, punished by not being able to pass to the other world, doomed to wander the world that they had so desperately longed to leave. Their hatred, their anger and will is all that I will need to bring the apocalypse down upon the pathetic mortals that infest this earth. With them I will place myself into his body, I will plant a part of myself deep into his brain and he will be part of me, we will think the same, feel the same, be one. In the years to come he will become my own, I will shape him, mold him into what I wish to become and then, after years of destruction, years of chaos, I will become him, I will take his immortal body as mine completely. Expelling any remnants of his soul I will take his body, become a god and destroy all that you see." There was a mad glint in his eyes, one that frightened the youth down to his core. "I shall start the night with you, bringing first blood to a new age that shall be written in the blood of mortals and paved with death and destruction."

"No" It was a broken whisper, a plea that was guaranteed to fall on deaf ears. With age, Muraki had only grown crazier, more bold and daring. First it was only to achieve immortality for himself, then for the revival of his brother, now he seeked to destroy the entire world. He'd gone mad with power. Did he really think he was God?

Leaning further down, crouching down to his knees, Muraki curled his long white fingers into Hisoka's golden tossed tresses, pulling his head back. Their lips were met as Muraki instantly claimed dominance over the weakened shinigami, biting down upon his bottom lip to draw forth blood, licking and lapping at it with his tongue. "Thank you, my dear doll, for bringing me the worlds next savior." A smirk was played across his features, a deranged joy sparkling in his gray eyes. "Perhaps, before killing you, I will have another go at you myself. Do not fret, I will preserve your beauty as I did once before, after all, you are the mother of the next messiah." With a nod to the blonde the doctor stood once more, turning, with not another look at the boy, to the pedestal.

There he pricked his index finger of his right hand, causing blood to well upon the tip. Looking, seemingly in fascination, first at the blood which seeped from his own veins, then to the child, screaming, crying and chilled to the touch by the spirits that ghosted over his skin, taking what energy and heat they could from the infant. A smile upon his lips, the man began, tracing curving and crude seals of ancient worlds long since forgotten except by all those that searched for them, each bound with the power of his own blood, crimson and staining upon the baby's white canvas of skin. The spirits circled, taking the fiery, burning sting of the curse and freezing the blood near instantaneously to Keitaro's skin. A seal upon the Childs chest, above the heart, controlling of his emotions, another at the center of the boys abdomen, the pit of his powers, the source of all life energy, and another at his forehead, the brain, the center of all thought and logic, the control center of the body. All surrounded by seal, protective and minor to the three. He would have absolute control. Stripping of his white shirt, tie carelessly tossed aside, he place three corresponding seal to his chest, abdomen and forehead. Raising his hands into the air he spoke."Now my child, bathed in the blood moon we will become one." The child, that had just begun to settled was once again screaming, louder than he had been before as the spirits circled them, lighting the pentagram on the floor below the pedestal which was placed within the center.

Hisoka's body arched under Watari, the man still groping and feeling, fighting with his own clothes and the boys in his desire. His eyes flew open blinded by the white light that had begun to fill the room. He could feel Muraki invading, but not him, his son. He could feel Keitaro's distress, feel his resistance failing and feel Muraki taking him. He could hear in his mind, the cry and wails for help from his son, helpless to do anything. A wrenching pain constricted his heart, blocked his mind from any logic. All his pain and all his sorrow and helplessness was poured out into a wailing cry that shook the room, echoing off the walls and sounding through the halls out to the still night bathed in red.

Far off, lost in the night, Tsuzuki fell to his knees, his heart skipped and refused to beat for long moments and his blood ran cold through his veins. "Hisoka!" He could feel the boy again, and he was crying, screaming like he'd never heard him before, a cry of pure agony and suffering. But now he had something to go on, he had a direction to head and so he did, off to his right and far into the distance. "I'm coming Hisoka!"

I made Muraki super evil, no wimpy "I want immortality or to bring back Saki" NO! He's going for world domination and destruction people! He thinks big. I want reviews please let me know also, what you thought of the whole evil ceremony of Muraki and Keitaro.. I never wrote a scene like that before so Thanks, reviews! I'm going now I'm hungry.


	14. Chapter 14

Hisoka's body arched under Watari, the man still groping and feeling, fighting with his own clothes and the boys in his desire. His eyes flew open blinded by the white light that had begun to fill the room. He could feel Muraki invading, but not him, his son. He could feel Keitaro's distress, feel his resistance failing and feel Muraki taking him. He could hear in his mind, the cry and wails for help from his son, helpless to do anything. A wrenching pain constricted his heart, blocked his mind from any logic. All his pain and all his sorrow and helplessness was poured out into a wailing cry that shook the room, echoing off the walls and sounding through the halls out to the still night bathed in red.  
It was bounced back over and over between the walls, assaulting the ears of the occupants of the room. It out lasted and out rang the cries of the infant and the laughter of the mad doctor. His body vibrated with the effort and shook long after his scream, though it echoed, echoed in the ears of all that had heard it. His head hit the ground, no longer able to support itself, no longer willing. Sweat beaded on his forehead, mixing quickly with the blood that had dripped to the ground that his head now rested in. He was empty, so empty and numb. He could not feel anything anymore, just a whole where his heart and stomach used to be.  
Amber eyes became dilated and a shine that had been lacking for such a long time. A life was reawaken to the sound of suffering and agony. The blonde became aware of a body beneath him upon which he was pressing his full weight. As his vision cleared he looked curiously about himself. His surroundings did not seem at all familiar and his mind was fuzzed with anything that had happened. There, in front of him was a back, clad in white, platinum blonde all but unrecognizable. "M.. Muraki..." His throat was hoarse, it hurt to talk, it was so dry, as if he hadn't talked in years. his head ached terribly and caused him to flinch a multitude of times as he tried to bite back the pain. The body beneath him shook, causing him to look down at him. Below him was the broken body of the honey blonde, stained crimson with blood and drenched with sweat from exertion. "Hisoka...!" Images were flashing across his eyes, blocking reality. He groaned as his head was beat against, hammered with these images and voices that echoed like a ghosts whisper in his mind.  
Always, always there was the image of the man in white, chanting, eyes sparkling and enchanting. he could never turn from those eyes. Hisoka, he could hear him from somewhere on the side. He was screaming, crying. There was agony in his voice, anguish. Something was wrong, he was being tortured. There was crashing, shattering of glass and splintering of wood. And an infant. He was crying, Keitaro was crying. It was growing louder, the screams, the cries and the sound of the fight.  
A scream erupted through the room for the second time however, this one drew the attention, unlike the last, of the doctor. This scream was not from the boy, not from his broken doll but from the golden haired man, straddling the boys hips. His hands were clenched, twisted in his hair, head thrown back and screaming from the top of his lungs. So much effort was thrown into his scream that he was lifted from the boy, staggering forward towards Muraki, stumbling and tripping over himself in his pain. The doctor could feel it. His hold over the scientist was slipping. With each second his grip on the mans mind and emotions was slipping till he could hold the mans psyche in check no longer.  
"No, Not now! Not now!"  
The pain lessened, it was dulled now to a persistent ache, numbing his body. He found himself slouched over, barely able to keep himself up on his feet. But now, now he could remember. Haired mussed and falling into his eyes his head was raised, a glint in his eyes like never before. He caught the eyes of the doctor and rage consumed him, rising from his gut and overfilling him. "You, you made me hurt him..." A growl was growing in the back of his throat. "You did this!" Without thinking the blonde charged, rather sloppily, still unsteady on his legs and tumbling over himself. He was met full on by Muraki, blocking the pedestal. Their hands clasped, fighting for dominance over each other. "You made me to hurt Hisoka, you made me bring you his child!"  
His world was so hazed. His vision was white and fuzzed around the edges. his first attempt to pull his head up from the floor was a failure, just as he had expected it to be. He lay there, thinking of just giving it up, letting what happens to him happen. Yet there was a glorious absence of weight, he could breath once more and without laboring. Groggily his head was lifted with enough effort to look ahead of himself. Watari. Watari was there, standing off with Muraki, locked in against him. "Keitaro..." His head was splitting, his body was on fire and screaming with searing pain along every nerve, yet he pushed upwards, separating his breaking body from the ground. "Kei...taro..." No matter how hard he pushed, he could not go faster than his limp would allow. It didn't look that far, yet each step seemed only to take him further from his infant son. With each step he was breathing heavier and heavier, panting as sweat beaded and dripped from his body.  
A scream was torn from him as the spirits that had previously been circling the entire room now focused on him. The sweat chilled his body to the point of numbness as the spirits sucked the heat from him, pulling at his open wounds in effort to pull his very energy from him. He stumbled over himself as he tried his best to swat at the spirits that circled him, crying with the pain of their memories and their hatred and sadness at their own existence. Some called out mindlessly for help, as though he could retrieve a body for their soul to house and bring life to them, others, murderous beings in life screamed of pain, torment and death to him, malice dripping from every thought that invaded unwillingly to his mind. A screaming cry brought his attention up to his son. His own pain was so severe, it found it both relieving and frightening that his son had not already fainted from an overload as he wished he could. The infant must have been in so much pain, mental and emotional turned physical by the cursed "gift" that he and his own were tormented with at birth. The screams hardened his reserve, bringing more hope and courage to force his body from the floor and lung forward at the pedestal upon which the child sat. With painful, agonizing steps he was brought within arms reach, only a step or so more...  
Muraki threw the blonde to the ground. He'd been weakened by the ceremony and with trying to hold his grip on the scientist while performing such a difficult ceremony. He was not at his max level of strength for a hand to hand combat but it was surely enough to defeat this lower and defenseless shinigami for he'd been weakened too. His hold over the blonde has been strong, he allowed the man to think he was in control of his own movement but since the annoyance had shown itself while he was trying to attain the infant from the brat, there'd not been one movement that had not been calculated, planned and executed by him. He'd seen everything, heard everything and known everything that had taken place in the judgment section from the birth of the brat to the attack that Watari had tried on the boy. There was not a thing he had lost control of, and that had weakened the shinigami severely in mind, spirit and body. Not being in control of himself had been literally destroying the shinigami from the inside out. He would present little of a threat. "You should have stayed in whichever blissful place you'd been placed in. You'd have had everything you wanted! You could have had him as your own and no one, not even heaven or hell could have stopped you." He walked forward, stopping only inches short of stepping on the blonde.

Watari was struggling. He drew in frantic and gasping breathes. Cold sweat poured from his body as he raised to rest on his forearms, panting and trying his hardest to catch his breath. From the very start of the battle his body had been aching terribly. He could feel it now all the more. The adrenaline had worn from his body and he was slowly being drained of even the energy to stand. With numb legs he stagger up into a hunched position, nearly falling again head first into the ground. "I-I am not you!" He shouted as he turned to face his enemy. His limbs were numb and heavy like lead. His arms hung useless and heavy at his sides. He falter again, stumbling backwards and forwards again as he tried to gain a balance that would hold his battered body.

Hisoka reached the pedestal. The spirits were thick here, those that had been circling Muraki and Keitaro and those that had extended to the outskirts of the room had gathered in the centered of the room, circling him seemingly in a pattern. As some kept a solid form of a circle about the father and son others would swipe in from this circle, attack randomly, quickly and without warning. He swatted desperately at them, trying to force them away, to break them apart so that they'd never bother him or his son again. Yet there seemed to be a never ending supply and they were all but invincible to his swatting hands. With no other choice he picked up his screaming son, feeling a burning fever on his pale skin and electric shock that danced along the curse marks that Muraki had painted on his flesh. It stung him terribly to touch his own son but he was certain the infant must have been in much worse pain than himself.

He pulled the infant close to him, falling against the pillar. He couldn't move. Having Keitaro with him, knowing that his son was finally in his arms, his own body gave out on him. The adrenaline that had pushed him this far was suddenly sucked from his body when he had his son in his own arms, the time he needed it most! Though even if the adrenaline had lasted, there was no way to pass the souls. They struck out, numbing flesh and causing even more electrical shocks than those of the curse that Hisoka was working to scrub from Keitaro's small naked form. His bloodied, dirty and torn clothes were dragged across the blood, smearing some of the fresher blood and fading the fever and shocks subside. Though he was still in a bind to protect himself from the attacks of the spirits around him, placing himself between them and his son the beast he could, draping his body over his son and curling to protect the both of them.

Muraki sneered at the shinigami. For a breaking body the man certainly had a lot of defiance. That annoyed him. He raised his fist to strike the man but turned swiftly. The boy was at his alter, the child had been pulled from the cushioned top and now was cradled desperately in the arms of it's mother. He could feel the connection between them fading as the boy scrubbed out the seal that had been painted on his skin. Where his consciousness had been syncing with the child it was now separating and thinning. The brat was once more in his way. A growl escaped him as he clenched his fists. He was ruining everything!

A tinge of pain came across his nerves and he dug a nail into the cut he'd made to adorn his blood to the infants skin. His eyes glanced down at his fingers as he played with them in the air. A glint came to his eye as an idea came to his mind. Pulling the blade that had been used earlier to prick his own finger from his pocket he fingered the handle. He would do away with the boy, once and for all. It would be a simple matter now, the boy being mortal once more. This time he would not draw out his death, nor make an effort to maintain the boys beauty. He would slice him limb from limb, then deal with scientist before continuing on with his plan. A smirk on his face he gave a yell and charged the youth at the pedestal.

Hisoka looked up at the yell that he heard. Through the haze and tail of the spirits circling him he could see the pure white of the suit and the grey glint off silver hair and glass eye as the doctor charged them. Stumbling numbly to his feet he manage to fall from the platform upon which the pedestal had been placed and tumble, rolling across the floor just in time only get nicked by the blade on his lower leg. A cry broke from his throat and grunts of effort at trying to keep from crushing his son as he rolled and slid across the floor. With as much effort as he could muster he attempted to push himself up. Muraki had recovered quickly, instantly from his failed attack. He was already facing the boy, mad glint in his eyes and dagger in hand. Unfortunately, he possessed no strength to move another inch, he tried, and tried again but he never made it more than halfway into an upright position before falling backwards on his rump again. Tears stung his eyes as he watched the doctor approach, flushed with frustration and effort as he tried at first to run and then to crawl, both attempts futile.

"You will never be in my way again." The doctor said. The boy curled in on himself, shielding his son and reflectively acting in defense, begging the gods to survive. The doctor laughed as he struck out, stabbing the blade into flesh, warm blood overflowing the blade as he twisted and turned the blade within the living body that he'd struck. He'd enjoyed the feeling of the flesh breaking and tearing under his command and the sputtering of the arteries and veins as they spit out blood over his hand, but things had not gone as he'd planned. Between him and his target was now the body of the scientist, dagger buried deep within his abdomen, hands wrapped tightly about the doctors own wrists, pressing the knife into is stomach and not allowing the man to pull away. A minor issue, he'd have been next on the list but a growl grew in his throat when the shinigami would not allow him to remove his hand nor the dagger that had been thrust straight into his own stomach. "Let go you damn guardian of death!"

Hisoka stared. When the blow that he'd been expecting had not landed he'd turned up in time to have a spurt of blood land across his cheeks as he came face to face with a blade sticking through the back of Watari's body. His eyes were wide as he watched, frightened and confused by the shanghais behavior in front of him. Watari had sacrificed himself for him. "Wa…tari…" The name fell from his lips numbly. His whole body that had been stiff and tense had relaxed itself, numb once more. He felt not even the wound on his leg nor the burning of a fever that had begun to take hold of his crumbling body. He just felt numb. His mind reeled with thoughts, trying to figure out what had gone through Wataris mind, why had the man sacrificed himself after beating him, kidnapping his son and trying to rape him. Were there too different Watari's?

There came a rumbling from somewhere outside the room, all turned to look at the door of the room. There came another rumble that shook them all to the very core, the metal beams above them creaked and groaned at the earth moving quake. Muraki growled once, pulling harsher at the dagger. Watari pulled, actually managing to push the dagger deeper into his own body. "Tsuzuki is coming, once he breaks through those doors, it's all over for you.." His eyes were drooping, his voice was becoming more silent as he lost more and more blood. The room shook horribly, knocking the pair over. In shock Watari had allowed the blade to be pulled from his own body.

Muraki had gone flying, sliding across the floor. The dagger had gone flying from his hand, skidding across the floor far from him. Above him the rafters bent and curved inwards. The room was beginning to cave in on them. Truzuki's attempts at entering the building from the outside had caused it to become unstable. The amethyst eyed guardian of death was literally causing more trouble, about to kill them all. These beams would not hold much longer. There was a loud and tremendous rumble at the door as the metal creaked and fell back down with a dust of metal and dirt that burst into the air. Beyond the door stood the figure of the man that brought a smile to the doctors face. "Tsuzuki -san"

Before the man could move an attack was launched at him. The doctor managed to dodge the worst but was struck in the side. The beam shot through the left side of his body, a searing pain flaring across his nerves. "Enough games, Muraki!"

"Tsuzuki!" Somehow Hisoka had found his voice, screaming for the man the moment the dust settled enough to see him. As if thinking the same the infant gave out a loud cry as well.

Within only a second Tsuzuki's attention had turned from the evil doctor to his lover, fallowing his voice to beyond the body of Watari where he'd fallen. He was so pale, blood running from thousands of cuts on his frail body and his face red with fever. His clothes were torn and cut apart, barely clinging in a decent manner to his body. Their son was tinted red, squirming and crying in his 'mothers' arms. "Hisoka!" Tsuzuki was rushing to his side, forgetting all about the mad doctor who'd fallen to his knees. His arms were about the boy, pulling him against his chest after pulling his own trench coat and wrapping it on the boys shoulders, squeezing him tightly. "Hisoka….." Tears stung his eyes as he held the boys face in his hands, looking into the boys emerald eyes, moist with tears. "I thought I'd never see either of you again…"

A rumble came from the rafter above them. The room shook and the creaking and groaning of the steel became louder. The room was caving in upon itself. "The roof's coming down. We've got to get out of here." Tsuzuki stood, tucking the coat more securely around Hisoka's shoulder, wrapping the infant with the end of the coat before pulling the two up, holding him first against his chest.

From off in the distance Tsuzuki could see Muraki standing again. His white suit was stained with blood and dirt, his right hand clutching at his left side. His eyes were glistening, a smile breaking out across his face as he let out a laugh that mad Tsuzuki think all the more that the doctor had finally been driven insane. It reminded Him much of the first time they'd met, that time he'd saved his lover from him the first time in the flames as he seemed to fade into them and disappear into the sky in wafts of smoke. "This isn't over Tsuzuki san. This is far from over." The man snarled and grit his teeth as he watched the doctor disappear into a light and swirl of dust and smoke once more. If only he could he'd have ripped his head from his shoulders. However the room would not last much longer and he had to get his family out of here before the roof caved in on their heads.

Hisoka looked down at the shinigami lying on the ground at his feet. The blast which Tsuzuki had used to open the door had knocked him off his feet, which in truth was not a difficult thing to do. His body had been shredded and Hisoka knew, Had Muraki not been tossed aside by the same blast, the man wouldn't have lasted much longer, leaving Hisoka in a dangerous position. Since then it seemed he would not stand again, a puddle of blood had grown beneath him, he wasn't healing either, he must have been too weak. His head was turned as his heart jumped with a crash. The rafters and beam that had held the underground room up were already beginning to crumble. The dirt packed above the steel plates was falling down over them The groaning of the metal as it bent and cracked under the pressure that built as the support beams gave way and the earth pressed down. Before he knew it he was already halfway to the door, dirt and metal falling about them as Tsuzuki tried to rush out. Then finally his sense came back to him.

"Tsuzuki! Watari can't get out!" AS he expected the purple eyed man stopped immediately and a feeling of utter confusion and hatred swept past Hisoka's senses. Tsuzuki's eyes were searching his lovers in question of why Hisoka would even bring up the man. Desperately Hisoka took hold of Tsuzuki's shirt, pleading with him. "He saved us! I don't know what happened but he wasn't himself before. Please…" The man looked back over his shoulders at the man lying on the floor. Between Hisoka and Keitaro he had no room to lift the man, nor the desire to do so. Another loud crash as the beams fell about them. Turning back to his lover his heart fell at the pleading look in his eyes.

"There's not enough time. The room will collapse before I can get him." Lowering his head he took a tighter hold on his family as he continued out the door. Realizing what that Tsuzuki was planning to leave Watari behind Hisoka gasped, mouth hung open as he looked back over Tsuzuki's shoulder to the blonde that slowly but surely became smaller as they put more distance between him and them. With a scream he extended his arm, reaching for the man in terror as he watched a beam fall between them, blocking all view of the man.

"Watari!"

….Don't really have anything to say… not particularly happy with this chapter, I don't know why, I might revise it, it just seemed rushed, even though it took like soooooo long to write… I dunno, maybe it's fine.


	15. Chapter 15

He was warm, his body tingled all over. He felt all light headed but in a good way, like he'd just slept for several years without interruption. He let out a groan, the type that is released when awakening, however his peaceful state of mind was short lived. His heart leapt from his chest as his eyes burst open, body jutting up to an upright position tossing aside the blankets. Searching about the place he found no remnants of the underground room that had become his nightmare. There was only sterile white. It truly felt like heaven.

"Kei..taro…?" He called out. From off on the side he heard a soft reply from the infant. Turning to his right there was a chair sat next to his bed. The occupant of said chair gazed with warm amethyst eyes, strands of chocolate falling softly about his face. In his arms, resting comfortably against the mans chest there lay a squirming body wrapped snuggly in blankets, mop of wheat blonde so distinct against the dark suit and color of his father. "Tsuzuki…?"

Relief washed over the purple eyed man, clear to all that looked as tears brimmed his eyes, threatening to fall. Moving swiftly from the chair to the bed the youth was pressed down against the bed, lips captured in a kiss. The infant, caught between them was cradled against his fathers chest. He remained, for the most part silent and still during the duration of the kiss, even as it was deepened, feeling none but the soothing relaxation and comfort that was overtaking both his mother and father.

By the time they parted tears were in Hisoka's eyes. He could find no reason for them, he wasn't saddened or frightened or angry. They were just there and he could not control them as they gathered and leaked down his cheeks in small trails. He had latched himself to Tsuzuki, fingers digging into the fabric of the mans suit and refusing to let go even after the kiss. A small sobbed escaped him as Tsuzuki lay his forehead against his. He really could not tell why he was crying.

"You were out for days. You had such a high fever, you were delirious by the time we got you here and you were so weak. I thought I may loose you…." A silence fell between them they drew strength from one another through contact of the skin. Tears streamed from both their eyes for long moments, each holding and running their hands through the others hair.

Hisoka's eyes were drawn to his son when the infant finally decided to make his presence known. It appeared he had thought he'd been ignored long enough. Reaching out Tsuzuki was understanding of the way Hisoka pulled the infant from his arms, though he was slightly worried for the infants bones at Hisoka's crushing hug. Something inside him snapped and tears ran down his eyes, sobs and murmurs incoherent escaped his lips uncontrollably as he held his son, placing the infant against his heart and feeling the two beat in unison. "My baby…"

Hours later the infant was still tightly locked in his mothers arms having been fed from Hisoka's own hand for the first time in so long. The blonde seemed so tired and worn yet even when Tsuzuki offered Hisoka would not release the infant, even long after he'd fallen asleep against his chest. He swore he'd never be able to put him down again. Yet as time went by, his mind began to play out nightmares that had yet to occur and thoughts that he'd rather never to have known. Tsuzuki too, seemed to sense that which Hisoka was worried so terribly about that it caused him illness.

"Did he…."

Tsuzuki shook his head. He closed his eyes, not being able to look his lover in the eyes while he explained. "How far Muraki had gotten before we were able to stop him we're not sure. We don't know if anything he tried had taken effect." He finally opened his eyes, meeting the wide emerald of his lover, yet there was no fear in them, no shock or doubt. There was nothing negative at all. They actually seemed to be understanding, accepting. It somewhat scared him. It was certainly not the reaction he had expected of his young life partner. Muraki had attempted to, due to lack of better term, possess their child after all. "We were hoping that you might be able to give some clue as to what had happened.. Or how Keitaro is….." A clamp had been placed on his heart, squeezing the life from him at having to say such a thing about his own son! To think that Muraki would have infected his son, making him to be his own image and taking from him the life he hadn't known he'd always wanted….

Hisoka turned back to the sleeping infant in his arms, running a finger along his features. His eyes softened.. Shaking his head lightly, he caught Tsuzuki's questioning attention. Tsuzuki was forced to wait for long moments until Hisoka finally spoke. "He didn't… He's still just as beautiful and innocent as he was the day he was born. There's no evil within him… There can't be…"

It was then that Tsuzuki realized what had happened. No one knew what had happened, or what had happened, but the love that Hisoka felt for their son, the unconditional love of a mother, gave faith that he was still pure. Though, he had to admit, he was quite willing to believe quite the same.

A thought came to his mind, an image. His head lowered as he tried to think of a way to approach the subject. He was honestly at a loss of how to begin. Deciding to just bring it up he opened his mouth as his head rose, very well intending to speak but stopped by the emerald that gazed at him so intensely. The look on the youths face spoke everything that his mind had been reciting to himself, and it was then that he knew, Hisoka knew everything that he'd planned to say.

The room fell uncomfortably silent again. Hisoka turned from Tsuzuki to stare at the white covering his legs beyond the lump of baby still clung to his chest. "I couldn't see it before. He always seemed so happy and energetic, like nothing could touch him. Behind the smile he was so lonely, letting it eat away at his insides until nothing was left but a hollow shell smiling at the world. The guilt of everything, it only hastened the determination and it began to drive him mad. He was jealous… almost like a child. Muraki… he saw through it even when I couldn't with all these damn emotions that flew at me I couldn't see his!" He seemed angry with himself, his voice broke and tears brimmed the edges of his eyes though he fought them back. Collecting himself enough as to not break down, he continued on. "Muraki turned him against his friends, planting evil things in his head and letting them grow until it finished what the loneliness had started." Deep down inside Hisoka's fears grew. Could that have been him? Could he too have been driven mad by the sheer loneliness of his cell in the dark hours of the night?

"I hope one day to get to tell him… he's not as alone as he thinks he is……"

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The blonde turned as the door opened. He was certain he still looked rather ridiculous, left eyed bandaged as was his head, hands and abdomen. They were quite itchy, though he'd done all he could think of stop it, but nothing had worked. Though an itch in comparison to eternal death… well, he guessed he shouldn't be complaining. From his view of the window he could see that the sun had begun to set and he was certain that the suited man was bringing him dinner. Since that night, Tatsumi had been the only one to visit him, though he did not expect any others to see him anyway, not after what he'd done.

The secretary placed the tray he carried in on a table by the mans side. Sitting in the chair that had been placed there since before the scientist had become aware of his surroundings , he gave the man a slight smile for reassurance. For some reason, the man had never shown malice towards him for what he'd done. It seemed there was something else there…

"Did the boy wake yet….?" He asked quietly.

"Kurosaki is quite alright. Hard to keep him down. He's quite eager to return home and get Tsuzuki backs to work." The image of the man falling flat when the youth had pushed Tsuzuki to go back so soon and the tears as the man begged to stay home made Tatsumi laugh in his mind, stifling the giggles that attempted to sneak from his lips.Watari made a sound of acknowledgement but nothing more. Tatsumi's laughs were quieted quickly as he placed his hand over Watari that rested in the blondes lap. The blonde looked to him, his one eye wide and they stared to each other for long moments before small smiles lightened each of their faces….

WELL, THAT"S IT!!!!! First steps is over and onto the next saga……. That I actually haven't thought of yet. Normally I'd have the first 10 chapters planned already… but I ran into a LARGE, SUPER LARGE,,TREMEDIOUSLY LARGE, large writers block. This ending was in the work for months!!! I didn't know how to get it done!!! It actually came to me when I was sleeping so… If I get good reviews, despite my super long waits and I'm so sorry, don't throw things at me, you might get a BONUS CHAPTER!!!! GOMEN EVERYONE!!!!! Oh, but see, I got a new job so… it's killed my time, I get up, don't even eat, just go right out and then come home and SLEEP!!!!!!! I finally have money and no time to spend it!!! TT.TT REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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